Google+ Strategy Outlined: Goal is 'Not to Build Something Separate' From Other Google Products

Google+ may not have the 800 million active users that Facebook has, but Google's senior vice president of engineering and project leader of Google+, Vic Gundotra, believes they'll continue to grow their numbers and gain traction in the social media market. He spoke in detail about Google+ at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco on Wednesday.

Gundotra touted the 40 million Google+ users that are using the social media platform less than one month after the company opened registration to the public. John Battelle, Web 2.0 conference chairman and co-moderator, asked Gundotra during the discussion if the people that have signed up for Google+ are actually using the platform. Gundotra dodged the question.

"I think it's very important to understand the strategy behind Google+, and the strategy is revealed in the name," he said. "We chose the smallest modifier we could on Google-just a plus-because our goal is not to build something separate and distinct, but to really take the Google service that people love already-Android, Google Maps, Youtube, Google search-and really make those properties magical." The Google+ user-base is about 4% of total Google network users.

Sergey Brin, one of the Google's co-founders, was intimately involved in the production Google+. He was also on stage at Web 2.0 and offered his expertise several times during the discussion. Gundotra attributes Brin as the person who created the idea of Google Hangouts, which is a free video conferencing application that enables up to 10 people to video chat together at one time.

Battelle, who cut through the rhetoric of C-level executives all week during discussions at Web 2.0 Summit, put the pressure on Brin and Gundotra when he said that although Google employees may be using Google+ regularly, very few people outside of the company are using it regularly.

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Battelle elaborated: He said he sees "vibrant" posts on Google+ from his colleagues, who all work with technology and social media, but he hasn't seen the same quality posting from his family, who, for whatever reason, have been slow to take on the new format.

Battelle then mentioned a conversation he had with Sean Parker, co-founder of Napster recently made popular through the movie The Social Network, who had said it's very hard to spread a new social media platform past user's closest group of friends. Essentially, it's hard to make a new social media platform viral.

Unlike Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who attacked his biggest competitors when the weaknesses of Microsoft products were called into question by Battel, Gundotra admitted Google+ has an uphill battle.

"The point that Sean made was right," said Gundotra. "The incumbent has a huge advantage and, if you play the same game, that's a hard game to win. We're going to play a different game."

Gundotra goes on to say that most peoples friends and family are already on the Google network. The company, now, wants to give them the ability to "express their identity and relationships."

Later in the discussion, Brin talked about the projects that the company has taken on in the past few years. "Some of our products seem scattered, and we definitely have been trying to bring them together," said Brin. "In some ways we've always run the company as 'let one thousand flowers bloom,' but once those flowers do bloom, you want to put together a coherent bouquet."

Brin adds: "We're going to try to make Google a more seamless experience across the various products."

Steve Ballmer's claim that Windows Live is "beating Google," which occurred one day earlier at the Web 2.0 Summit, was brought up later in the discussion. This prompted Gundotra to allude to Google Docs pending integration with Google+. No details were revealed about how Google Docs would be integrated with Google+.

Brin added that, although he can't speak to Microsoft's success because they've "obviously been the incumbent for many, many years," it was an area he was surprised to hear such an aggressive claim.

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