Bradley Horowitz, Vice President, Product Management, Google & Loic Le Meur, Founder, LeWeb
When looking at search, Google had amnesia. it did not remember what you were looking at. So Google+ is looking to change this, to understand users better to provide better information for them. My phone does not understand relationships – it should let me wife phone in middle of night, but not a stranger.
So with Google local, can get searches from people in circles, people you ‘trust’. You will see more + across all the services. There are many more on the way. With G}+, it was a social network that was late to market, but we could leapfrog, we asked people want they want. Privacy was important. We gave people friction, the ability to target which conversations are happening.
G+ is early in its life. It is not to immediately be Facebook..to farm etc. It’s to do things differently, eg hangouts. You can get celebrities there. Very different to other services. Hangout is one of the differentiators but they are just getting started. There are many things planned. The last number shared is 170m users have upgraded accounts. That number is stable, looking at growth but next numbers at next earning call. To get to that number in 11 months that is dramatic; many took years. Don’t think have reached the hypergrowth yet. There are things that organic..things happen slowly. Never thought there would be this many so soon but best days ahead of them, many things to launch. So for example the mobile clients, they are stunning. We saw dramatic increase in usage across mobile. THe mobile usage increasing dramatically (won’t give numbers). For Google, mobile usage is not a problem, does not impact business model
LL asked about API. BH says that Google I/O is next week…and excited about that. Not going to announce stuff early. But one thing they can announce is about APIs..they are releasing them with targeted partners. Today they are announcing a new partner. They have Flipboard now a partner. It is an amazing application..and now it can work with and to G+ Content looks great.
Bonin Bough from Kraft (photo @adders)
BH brings out people from Kraft – they have been working with them on the Cadbury brand. Kraft are on G+, one of their biggest brands, 1.6m. they have a big year…but lots of existing channels. They wanted a Cadbury channel, to talk about the master brand, Olympics etc. They talk about chocolate, Olympics. Done hangouts with athletes etc. BH thinks Kraft are setting an example. Thinks they are authentic, that they are engaging with people, It is a dynamic platform for them. Kraft Bonin Bough talks about shifting mindset, how everything becomes social. TC is important, as it is a previous commodity and they need socially engaging channels around them, They put G+ at the centre of the campaign. TV is about shifting from expressions to connecting. The commercial will be the trailer to the bigger experience to the brand, at the moment, you see a CTA, this will change, they are going big on connected TC, mobile, mobile at retails, interactive print etc. Thinks of google as a partner, especially with search, google has all the bits.
Now BH brings people up on a hangout. It’s about ‘bringing people together’. (they used this to get questions) One question was about enterprise workplace. G+ can help businesses connect. Within Google they use it to share information, small team work groups, hangouts for collaboration. It becomes a new circle. Companies are using before they have formally launched the enterprise product. For BB (Kraft) they use it, to drive projects,connect people. THey have to bring a different mindset into the organisation. Another question was about recording hangouts (hangouts on air). BH says this was done about 4 weeks ago, to broadcast their hangout, connect with a few, then also broadcast out. The whole world could be watching.
Kraft talking about Olympics, they are going to be covering the social channels 27/7 to enable reaction. They have also been working with tech companies, have just run first hackathon.
