Google’s Vic Gundotra, who was the man in charge of Google+ since its launch, left Google in recent days, which is leading to many rumors regarding the future of Google’s social network. The search giant has been trying to find away into the massively popular social networks market for years, and Google+ was the latest, and most successful attempt. The fact is, however, that they have not been able to make any significant progress against Facebook.
While G+ certainly gets a lot of traffic and is used by millions, it has not been the success that Google was hoping for. With this move by Gundotra, along with some other moves within Google, it seems that Google+ isn’t going to be getting the attention it would need to become a competitor of Facebook or Twitter.
According to reports from TechCrunch, Google+ is no longer going to be a primary product of Google, but rather it will be a platform that provides support to other Google products. For example, it is already being used to gather user data to help provide improved ad targeting for AdWords. In addition, it is the main portal people use to sign on to Google properties like YouTube and gMail (though this is something of a sore point for many users).
The report also found that some of the 1000-1200 team members working on Google+ are being shuffled around as well. The Google Hangouts team, for example, will be moving under the Android team. The photos team may follow in that direction as well. Essentially, the team that was focused exclusively on the Google+ platform now will be spread out, and presumably getting a new focus.
Google, of course, denies that any changes that are being made are the result of Gundotra’s exit, and they are minimizing any rumor of changes regarding the Google+ platform. There will likely be some significant announcements, however, over the coming weeks regarding how Google plans on using their social network. You can expect that these announcements will be downplayed in importance by Google, but it is clear that some big changes are coming.
