3 ms·
As someone who worked at Google when Google+ was released, IMO the failure was all about Vic Gundotra. 1. He's the elitist who went against Google's culture an
by varelse 11y ago
As someone who worked at Google when Google+ was released, IMO the failure was all about Vic Gundotra.
1. He's the elitist who went against Google's culture and separated the Google+ team in its own sooper sekrit headquarters with its own cafeteria.
2. He's the backstabbing liar who first said the company-wide annual bonus was going to be based on the success of Google+ and then when it briefly looked like it would be a facebook killer, he went back on his word, thus alienating pretty much everyone.
3. He's the out of touch dumba$$ behind real names that sucked the appeal out of Google+ and left it a dumping ground for stuff that didn't fit anywhere else.
The day Google+ was released, I was besieged with invite requests from friends and acquaintances. And the Google+ UI IMO was nicer than Facebook's (and it still is IMO). However, as soon as Google+ made it their business to out gay people using pseudonyms to stay in the closet, those requests stopped.
I'm sure there are many more reasons for the failure, but this was what I saw from within Google at the time.
- mycelium 11y agoThis is dead on. Anybody who looks at the failure of G+ without looking at Gundotra is missing a huge part of the plot.
- bambax 11y agoMaybe. But he was put in charge, and left in charge, by Page. He can't be the only one left holding the candle.
- minwcnt5 11y agoNot to mention gaming the usage metrics and OKRs to give the impression G+ was far more popular than it really was, then taking the whole team to Hawaii to celebrate the supposed success. I'll never understand what Larry saw in him; he came across to many as a huge culture mismatch from the very start with his smooth-talking used car salesman style.
- jrsta 11y agoWhen project leaders spoke internally at Google (at least back then) they typically did so with a level of candor that Vic never provided. He would get on stage and just speak in unconvincing platitudes. Bradley Horowitz still carries that torch unfortunately.
- dnr 11y agoAs someone else there at the same time, I pretty much concur. I still remember the tgif where someone asked him a very pointed question about real names and he completely dodged the question. Vic was a very bad thing for the company.