From G+ to G++

1. From
To
Alexandria McAuliffe, Alex Wagenheim,
Ashwin Bijani, Shweta Nagpal, Yuval A. Harel

2. Background
• Launched on June 28, 2011
• First 16 days – 10 million users
• Estimated current users – 170-million
• Purpose
– Personalize Google search using G+ data
– Solution to Facebook’s privacy concerns
• Failed social networking projects by google – Orkut,
Buzz, Google Wave

3. What’s in G+?
• Features:
– Home
– Photos
– Hangouts
• Video chat
• Messaging
– Games
– Explore
• What is hot?
– Circles
• Share different things with different people

4. What’s in G+?

5. - Hit or a Miss?
NOT
Vs.

6. What is the issue?
Problem Statement:
Increase the amount of time that users are actively using
Google+
January 2012 average view time
3.3 mins. 7.5 Hrs.
Where is the added Benefit?

7. Why not spending time on G+?
• Rebuild Social Network CIRCLES
• No easy integration • Non-intuitive
• Asymmetric sharing
• Reposting
Home screen post size Mobile App
• No Hangout feature
• No tablet App

8. How did we find these issues?
Interviews & Observations
“I would change the way the circles interface works. It is a
great concept in theory but is so confusing to navigate. When
I click to go to the circles section, it shows 124 people in my
circles yet I didn’t add the strong majority of them. Or maybe
I did unintentionally?? Which would be a sign of a terrible
user interface!”
Honestly, I'd want it connected to twitter and
Facebook in some way. The idea that I'd have to
rebuild the networks I have on those sites in
order to get the most out of Google+ is a bit
tiring.

9. Any Publicity Is Good Publicity?

10. Solution
• Primarily aggregator of information
– The Huffington Post business model
• Pulitzer Prize – April 16 2012
• Aggregate
– Eliminate Circles
• Social
• Professional
• Simplify User Interface
• Home • Games
• Photos • Explore
• Hangouts • Circles
• Improve App

11. Aggregate
• Auto Login
• Share Directly
– All Social or Professional
• Selection with in groups

12. Simplify User Interface

13. Mobile & Tablet App
• Add Google maps
– Check-in to their favorite places
– Post pictures
– Comment on posts
• Smaller Icons
Tablet app
All Google+ website
features available

14. Execution
Contacts at
other Networks
User Interface
Experts
Development
Team
Leverage
Google Products Robust
Flagship
•Shareholders
•Employees

15. Execution
• Google+ development team
• Contacts at other networks
– Facebook
– LinkedIn
– Twitter
• Leverage
– Search engine
– Google maps
• User interface experts
– Maintain Intuitive interface
• Robust Flagship
– Shareholders
– Employees
• Risk
– Networks will not join the Google+ effort

16. How did we solution?

17. Are you still thinking?

18. Questions