By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
Google Plus has become a phenomenon as a unique social network. We talk to Wendy Bairos Rozeluk from Google’s Communications and Public Affairs department to get more information of G+, its users as well as some future features worth looking forward to. Hit jump to read the full interview.
Canadian Reviewer: What is the origin of Google plus? What led to its creation?
Wendy Rozeluk: We know that behind the web of pages, there has always been a web of people - who blog, tweet, shoot videos, and share information with the world. PageRank, one of our earliest technologies, was actually designed to understand what people everywhere thought about websites by counting the trillions of links between them.
YouTube was built on the need for people to share video clips with each other. And products like Docs and Calendar have sharing baked into their DNA. That said, products like OpenSocial, FriendConnect and Buzz did not nearly live up to expectations. We feel that there’s more we can and should do to make the social experience better for users – and we are just getting started with the Google+ project.
CR: Google + has a very specific set of features and hubs, how were these decided in and will the functionality of the service expand in the future?
WR: Google+ aims to make sharing on the web more like sharing in the real world. You share different things with different people. So we started the Google+ project to see what a Google approach to sharing would look like, and to see if we could come up with a better way of connecting with the different people in all of our lives. The features built into Google+ help people share in new ways, includin
- Circles: Share the right things with the right people.
- Sparks: Get videos and articles about stuff you’re into sent directly to you, so when you’re free, there’s always something to be watched, read, or shared.
- Hangouts: Pop in and out of video hangouts when you’re online. Chat with up to ten people.
- Instant Upload: If you opt-in, every photo and video you take on your phone uploads automatically to a secure album in the cloud.
- Huddle: Turn multiple conversations into one simple group chat.
And this is just the beginning. We’re excited to get this project started, and make sharing online even better.
CR: Google + has been in use for a few months now? How many accounts are there? How many active users?
WR: Over 10M people have joined Google+. We are seeing over 1 billion items shared and received in a single day.
CR: Will there be a storage cap for Google plus Photos? Will users be able to buy more space?
WR: You will be able to upload albums from the Picasa client and share them with your circles. You can save as many photos up to 2048 pixels as you can take. You can also upload 1080p HD videos up to 15 minutes, up to 2 GB each calendar month.
Photos you’ve previously uploaded to Picasa Web Albums or Buzz up to 2048 pixels will now be part of your unlimited storage plan. We don’t have any future plans to share, but we are continually working to enhance the photo experience across all Google properties for our users.
CR:Games have been introduced to Google+. Will there be other ‘app-like’ functions going forward? Also, is there a danger that this might ‘bloat’ the service, which is one of the issues Facebook is having now where there is too much going on?
WR: It’s important to keep in mind this is an ongoing project and this is just the beginning. We plan to add a lot of features and functionality to Google+ over time. We’re just excited to get started.
CR: Can you name some of the famous people who have recently joined the service?
WR: I don't know when these people joined and not endorsing in any way but some of the pages I have found so far including Lady Gaga, Mariah Carey, Dolly Parton, Ashton Kutcher, Snoop Dogg, Madonna and Britney Spears.
CR: Will Google+ pages for businesses and organizations happen and will they work pretty much the same way?
WR: We expect to have an initial version of business profiles up and running for EVERYONE in the next few months. In the meantime, there may be a tiny handful business profiles that will remain solely for the purpose of testing how businesses interact with consumers.
CR:Will there be Google+ clients for fringe devices like the RIM PlayBook and the Windows Phone?
WR: Our mobile app is available for Android (2.0+), iPhone (3G, 3GS, 4; requires iOS 4+) and we developed a web app (Android (1.5+) | Apple (iOS 3+ and iPad) | Blackberry (6.0+). We are working quickly to roll out the Google+ mobile app to as many platforms and devices as possible.