

Inside Google+: How The Search Giant Plans To Go Social - dfield
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/06/inside-google-plus-social/

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sajid
Circles looks really interesting, it's something Facebook has never managed to
get right. And Larry Page changing his views on UI design demonstrates a
willingness to really push out the boat on this one. They will have a tough
time fighting the network effects of Facebook's social graph but I think it's
time to put the meme about Google not understanding social to rest.

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JordyB
I completely agree, their biggest problem will be getting people to switch
over from Facebook, although I'm sure many of us were on other social
networking sites before Facebook so it can definitely happen again. If circles
manages to target the regions that Facebook hasn't then they will have a huge
advantage.

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sahaj
If they can nail the group video conf & google voice integration, I think they
have a winner and people will move over just to use this feature.

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adamfeldman
Really great article. Seems like the author has had a lot of access to the
team working on Google+, and it makes for an interesting read.

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rryan
Yup, it's the same guy who wrote In the Plex. He has crazy access to all sorts
of people at Google -- much more raw source material gets through in his
writing than the other journalists out there.

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zach

      "We needed a code name that captured the fact that either there was
      a great opportunity to sail to new horizons and new things, or that
      we were going to drown by this wave," Gundotra said last August.
    

Or their approach boiled down to four bullet points which started with M, R, L
and C, so someone decided to call it "Emerald Sea".

I mean, they even mention that the painting thing was a retcon in the article.
But Vic's in front of Steven Levy, Google's official mythologizer, so he goes
for it.

I'm guessing the four points behind the "MRLC" initials were mobile,
recommendations, live and circles (or, equivalently, context). That does
neatly categorize Google+ to date.

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Peaker
I wonder how long they've been working on it.

Given the many people who left Google for Facebook, I wonder if Facebook had
inside information about this.

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bauchidgw
for all who have also suffered through "in the plex" jump directly to page 5
[http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/06/inside-google-plus-
so...](http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/06/inside-google-plus-social/5/)
for some actual new information

