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G+ was indeed an internal success in that: * It made a lot of coddled high-energy employees continue to feel valued and engaged and not jump to a competitor.
by choppaface 4y ago
G+ was indeed an internal success in that:
* It made a lot of coddled high-energy employees continue to feel valued and engaged and not jump to a competitor.
* It forced users to unify accounts making cookie joining and user data from different segments much more universally accessible to ads.
* It brought design uniformity to G on the web, which is an important to contrast the Google brand with the otherwise fragmented Android space.
* Lasting revenue and user data from Google Photos and Drive.
Google plus was Google doing what it does best: solving Google problems. It never had a chance as a product, but they didn’t need for it to win. They needed to re-consolidate data input to Ads and defend against a talent drain.
- clnq 4y agoWas it really planned for that? This sounds like just a list of initially unplanned effects it had, used as internal PR spin at best.
- choppaface 4y agoThe user account consolidation was pretty explicit. It might have been explained as necessary for UX consistency, but for Ads it was a huge way to whitewash otherwise verboten underwear-smelling. G+ birthed the "create account / log in with Google" widget for non-Google websites, that could go alongside the "log in with FB" widget that was getting popular. Those widgets let Google / FB join your account cookies with whatever other ads get shown on the page. G+ lead to a dramatically changed privacy policy that dramatically increaed data sharing.
- cloudking 4y ago+1 Google Photos is very successful, the product spawned out of G+ auto syncing photos.
- llampx 4y agoWasn't that more from the acquisition of Picasa?
- AlbertCory 4y agoThis is kinda like saying, "The Vietnam War was a success. After all, it kept Indonesia from turning Communist."
- choppaface 4y agoWell that's kind of a brutal example, but I agree with the comparison. Indeed, G+ was successful for Google zealots and their bottom line. And in turn, to some extent, the shareholders.
- raspberry1337 4y agoWait what impact did the Vietnam War have on Indonesia? I've never seen this documentary
- AlbertCory 4y agoWho's going to show a documentary like that? I have seen articles claiming all sorts of "benefits" of the War, and I believe that was one of them. The coup of 1965, which massacred a million "Communists" was in there.
- klabb3 4y agoI imagine this is exactly what they put into their perf reviews at the time. Doesn’t mean it’s causal, or that those things wouldn’t have happened anyway, for a much lower cost.