Google’s Gundotra and Brin Unveiled Google+ Strategies to Take on Facebook
Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Senior Vice President Vic Gundotra have praised Google+ in a joint interview that probed the web giant’s social strategy to take on Facebook, Wednesday.
Gundotra said at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco the Google+ social network’s growth to 40 million users exceeded Google’s expectations.
In the war for users’ attention, Google+ is engaging rival Facebook, which has over 800 million users.
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The “social czar” Gundotra said that he is happy with Google+’s fast start and presented new features that will be coming soon to Google+.
Google will support other forms of identity, allowing users to create pseudonyms on the social network. The change comes after the social network faced criticism from users over its lack of support for pseudonyms. He attributed the delay to an attempt to establish a particular atmosphere on the site.
He also announced that brand pages will be coming soon, as well as “clever ideas” for advertising.
Google Co-founder Sergey Brin also appeared alongside Gundotra, making a surprise appearance at the technology conference. Brin shared a few specifics and expressed his excitement about the company’s social network.
“I am pretty happy,” Brin said at the Web 2.0 Summit. He has also admitted that he is not a social person himself confessing that he’s never been able to get into sites like Facebook and Twitter.
“I’m not a very social person myself,” Brin said. He explained that he’s tried other social networking sites because he feels that it’s his job but he found Google+ much more compelling as a user.
Google is trying to play a different game, according to the company’s execs, leveraging Google’s inherent user base, which is spread across Google Search, Gmail, YouTube and other services.
