It seemed inevitable that Google’s social experiment would eventually be scrubbed off the face of the Internet. The disdain for Google+ and Google’s forced implementation of the social media platform into each and every one of its products seems to be pushing users away, but in an interview with Re/code, new head of social media David Besbris claims that his team is “the largest [it’s] ever been.”
“We’re actually very happy with the progress of Google+,” Besbris says when asked if the social media service is going away any time soon. “[CEO Larry Page] said this at the time that Vic [Gundotra, former VP] transitioned — that he’s going to continue working on building this stuff, that he’s very happy with it. The company is behind it. I have no idea where these rumors come from, to be honest with you.”
Besbris goes on to explain the biggest misconception about Google+, which is that it’s meant to be a product that competes with another specific product on the market, perhaps one with a blue logo and over a billion monthly active users.
“This is how Google has always done stuff,” he explains. “There were search engines before Google, we just did it differently. There were email systems before Gmail came out, we just approached the problem differently.”
Although Besbris believes Google+ is going strong and has plenty of standout features that set it apart, such as Photos and Video Hangouts, he admits that there’s room to improve in some areas.
“We’ve always had really good mobile apps for iOS and Android, but we can never have enough energy or focus on mobile. I’m really happy with what we have but I think it opens up new avenues and new frontiers, stuff we can do with location that we’ve never been able to do before.”
So for all of you that were hoping Google might eventually sweep Google+ under the rug, you might be waiting a while. According to Besbris, there’s no end game for the social platform. Google is in social “for the long haul.”
