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Google+ Head Vic Gundotra Leaving Company

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Re: Google+ Head Vic Gundotra Leaving Company

#141

Post by wtbob »

blisterpeanuts wrote: post #110

I like G+ for the photo back-up from my Android phone. In fact, that seems to be the killer feature. I wonder what will happen to G+ if Facebook adds a similar feature. The stream is interesting if you add enough people and organizations, but I find I can go for days or weeks without checking it. I know some people spend all day on G+, but it's unclear to me why. Between FB, G+, Twitter, LinkedIn, and a host of other…

> I like G+ for the photo back-up from my Android phone.

See, I don't use any of Google's 'let us manage your plaintext data' services except for mail (because email travels in the clear anyway, I'm not too bothered by that).

If they would enable me to store my phone, tablet & app settings, Chrome passwords and backed-up data on their servers, encrypted on the client with a key known only to clients I control, then it'd be a killer feature for me.

Indeed, if they would bake crypto into their products such that all data were encrypted to the public keys of the intended recipients, then I think that they'd be going a long way towards making the world a better place.

But as it is, there's no way that they are laying a finger on my WiFi password, my web site passwords, my photos or any other data I create and do not intend to send to the world.

Re: Google+ Head Vic Gundotra Leaving Company

#142

Post by pessimizer »

powera wrote: post #40
e15ctr0n wrote: post #20

The comments on the Secret app[1] speculate that he might be joining Mozilla, Github or the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins. What if he rejoins Microsoft instead? [1] https://www.secret.ly/p/wxdnkdhjnsocjxwnizhdpacufc

I think that's just people suggesting companies that have had a recent people of hiring people that say stupid things, not serious speculation. [Brendan Eich, Tom Preston-Warner, Tom Perkins] Because vicg@ also says a lot of stupid things (and does a lot of stupid things).

You got downvoted for getting the joke:)

Re: Google+ Head Vic Gundotra Leaving Company

#143

Post by cmelbye »

yid wrote: post #38
saidajigumi wrote: post #34

> Former CEO Eric Schmidt admitted in an interview at the D conference in 2011 that he missed the boat on the rise of identity on the Internet. > “I clearly knew that I had to do something, and I failed to do it,” he said. “A CEO should take responsibility. I screwed up.” I think Eric screwed up in a deeper way that this quote admits. Google+ came up at a time of broader dissatisfaction with other social networks, pa…

> And _all_ of that interest was shot dead due to attempts to own identity by enforcing the use of real names[1]. It was an understandable, safe, and wrong decision at the time. Facebook's commercial power was widely attributed to the fact that for the first time, wide swaths of people were using their real identity online. With the investment that Google put into +, the risk of having another sea of MetalHead444s wa…

Safe? It threw the Internet into uproar, which continues today as they force YouTube users to either use their real names or create a Google+ brand page for their YouTube username. That doesn't sound like a safe decision to me.

Re: Google+ Head Vic Gundotra Leaving Company

#144

Post by joe_the_user »

bane wrote: post #56

IMHO Google+'s principle problem is that it's multiple efforts all under the same name umbrella. This is confusing to users and seems to have been confusing to Google. It's a longer-than-twitter public broadcast messaging system/social network/photo sharing/single sign-on/half a dozen other things. There's some great ideas in there. Having a subscription style feed of people I want to follow, and their long-form post…

IMHO Google+'s principle problem is that it's multiple efforts all under the same name umbrella. This is confusing to users and seems to have been confusing to Google.

I wouldn't put it that way.

A way to manage multiple efforts in one place could easily have been appreciated.

The problem was G+ was an effort to mold/carve the multiple accounts people had with Google into a single Facebook like thing. And it worked by pushing people through no-opt-out rather than pulling people by giving them something flexible and desirable. You had to turn your Gmail into a G+ account, you had to turn your Youtube into the same G+ etc.

It's true that rolling this stuff into one thing resulted in a complete mess. But it's important to notice it wasn't just a combining, it was a bondage-and-discipline style imposition.

Re: Google+ Head Vic Gundotra Leaving Company

#145

Post by Karunamon »

dang wrote: post #118
CamperBob2 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I won't complain about downvotes, but I would like to request a feature. In a manner similar to 'showdead', I'd like to be able to disable graying. Here's why: when you gray out a comment to the point of illegibility, as is happening more and more, that only makes me want to read it more. So I end up paying more attention to downmodded comments, not less. Somehow, I don't think that's what you were going for. I would…

That's a reasonable request. I've added it to our list.

Thank you for at least taking the idea under consideration.

I've more than once wanted to create a browser plugin that basically hides the voting system from the person running it. i.e. all comments are the same color, and top level ones are sorted randomly on the page - there are some hot-button issues where such a feature would be valuable.

Re: Google+ Head Vic Gundotra Leaving Company

#146

Post by pessimizer »

ThePhysicist wrote: post #77

370 million monthly active users. I wonder how many of those interact with Google+ by mere accident. Personally, the only time I post stuff on G+ is when I'm using another Google service (e.g. Youtube) and they post it to my G+ stream, often without my knowledge or consent.

"We’ve heard that there were tensions between Gundotra and others inside the company, especially surrounding the 'forced' integrations of Google+ into products like YouTube and Gmail. Apparently, once each of those integrations was made, they were initially being claimed as 'active user' wins until Page stepped in and made a distinction."

http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/24/google-is-walking-dead/

Re: Google+ Head Vic Gundotra Leaving Company

#147

Post by frade33 »

Google+ is to Facebook, what Bing is to Google Search.

It wasn't really going to work, much like the Bing. There were simply too late to the party as were Microsoft or Yahoo to 'modern' search engine.

I only hold Vic responsible for messing too much with the web design of Google+. Jesus, no one changes underwear so often as they would UI.

In the end, the failure of missing the social bandwagon solely relies on Eric. Because Vic was working on the mobile side (I think) when Facebook was kicking in.

Re: Google+ Head Vic Gundotra Leaving Company

#148

Post by junto »

wtbob wrote: post #141
blisterpeanuts wrote: post #110

I like G+ for the photo back-up from my Android phone. In fact, that seems to be the killer feature. I wonder what will happen to G+ if Facebook adds a similar feature. The stream is interesting if you add enough people and organizations, but I find I can go for days or weeks without checking it. I know some people spend all day on G+, but it's unclear to me why. Between FB, G+, Twitter, LinkedIn, and a host of other…

> I like G+ for the photo back-up from my Android phone. See, I don't use any of Google's 'let us manage your plaintext data' services except for mail (because email travels in the clear anyway, I'm not too bothered by that). If they would enable me to store my phone, tablet & app settings, Chrome passwords and backed-up data on their servers, encrypted on the client with a key known only to clients I control, then i…

I absolutely agree with you. I even have a Nexus 4 phone, but with all of the core invasive tracking stuff turned off.

I want to control my data. Any data that gets stored at rest needs to be stored with PGP at Google's end and only I hold the key.

Until they can guarantee that and someone audits that and proved it to be true then I'll consider letting my data move off the device. Because fuck the NSA.

Re: Google+ Head Vic Gundotra Leaving Company

#149

Post by philsnow »

timothya wrote: post #125
sjs382 wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, the number one problem of Google+ was that many who were excited to try it, couldn't (for over a year, if I recall?). We were a 2nd-class-citizens with a Google Apps account, rather than a Gmail account.

It was in the invite-only stage for less than 3 months.

sjs383 is referring to google not allowing/enabling accounts on "Google apps for your domain" domains (vanity or business google accounts, essentially) to get on plus.

Re: Google+ Head Vic Gundotra Leaving Company

#150

Post by pessimizer »

rjf1990 wrote: post #135
DannyBee wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They really don't. What you just wrote is like saying "This is nothing out of the unusual. Cows turn themselves inside out all the time" ( http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/149573/inside-out-cows )

They really do. Anybody who's been at a big company sees it all the time. Most don't make news stories because they aren't at a sexy company like Google, leading up a division that's well-known among consumers. You wouldn't hear about something like the head of fraud detection at American Express leaving his job. I've seen it before (not at Amex, but other large companies).

That's only because you don't read creditnews.com.

When a major exec leaves in my industry, everyone is talking about it on Monday, and lawsuits often ensue if they end up at a competitor.

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