
Google.com Has An Unmissable Ad Drawing Users To Google+ - tbgvi
http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/20/google-com-has-an-unmissable-ad-drawing-users-to-google/
======
ramanujan
People vastly underestimate how important this effort is within Google. This
is not something they are going to work hard on and then leave fallow like
Google Health, or give up on after a few months like Buzz. They are going to
grind on this with everything they've got like they are grinding on core
search. The Plus team will become one of the most selective and elite teams
within Google, on par with core search. Just as every Google product is
designed to be search indexed, so too will every product now (and going
forward) be designed to have sharing/collab built in as core. [1]

People forget that new features _do_ attract new users. Facebook is Facebook
because it didn't stop at profiles, it added News Feed, Platform, Chat,
etcetera. Reports of Plus' demise are thus much exaggerated.

Anyone who has ever launched a product knows that there is a trough after that
first media driven euphoria. That trough of despair shouldn't get too deep or
take too long to exit, but there is no business that hasn't had one of those
after a successful press driven launch.

At a minimum, even if they are only the strong #2 to FB as a consumer social
network, they will own "Facebook for business" when they launch Apps
integration. It is the most obvious way to instantly bootstrap a fully
featured collaborative company social network within the organization that
works _with_ rather than supplants email. This is quite hard to do right
without being the email provider as well, rather than a third party service
like Yammer or Asana[2], but Plus does it well: email under picture for quick
private messages, Plus for more public and publicly searchable posts.

[1] To its credit, Microsoft also gets this now in that all apps in Metro are
search providers, dashboard providers, social providers, and more generally
API providers.

[2] I feel bad for both of those companies. As excellent and well executed as
they are, can't see how they can compete with Plus for Business.

~~~
tobtoh
> they will own "Facebook for business" when they launch Apps integration

Well I doubt any App user is expecting that to happen anytime soon. In any
post about Google+ today, there is an App user within the top 5 parent reply
posts bitterly complaining how, yet again, they have been neglected.

Google has made empty promises a couple of years ago about App user
integration - but have been deathly silent since then.

~~~
Kylekramer
And before today, people were complaining about how you needed an invite for
Google+. And when Google Voice started, Apps users were bitching about not
having access to that. It is fairly clear that it will eventually happen, just
like it has for nearly all other Google services. It is just that the sound
from those screwed over is deafening and then disappears without a trace.

~~~
edanm
I wouldn't say it disappears. As an Apps user, I do what most do - assume that
anything new coming from Google will _not_ be coming to Apps withing the first
few months.

This definitely detracts from the Apps experience. I've seriously considered
leaving Apps before. And this is _after_ they made that major push to unify
Google Accounts with Google Apps Accounts, which was a major headache as well.

~~~
StavrosK
As far as I know, this is because Profiles aren't available for Apps users,
and thus Plus can't work with Apps. I guess that, in the long run, Apps will
have perfect integration with everything else.

------
makecheck
A couple things bothering me so far...

1\. It's 2011, and I started out by seeing this:

<https://plus.google.com/not-supported/?ref=/up/>

I had to "lie" to Google and pretend I'm Safari. No big deal, but Google of
all sites should not have these kinds of crap restrictions.

2\. When I tried to log in, I was spammed that I should "link to Picasa",
whatever that means, with the only options being to _do it_ or _Cancel_ (at
which point the entire Google login is stopped!).

So far, from my point of view Google+ is making basic mistakes: I am
discouraged in every way to log in.

~~~
JoshTriplett
What browser are you using, out of curiosity? Presumably something based on
WebKit if you're claiming to be Safari.

~~~
makecheck
Yes...using OmniWeb (Mac). But I noticed Opera isn't on their list either.

~~~
tomjen3
Opera has how much market share?

G+ is javascript heavy, I wouldn't want to support every browser under the sun
either.

~~~
darklajid
And user-agent sniffing (guessing from the 'lying to be safari' comment) is
the right way to go here? Really?

If you don't want to support 'every browser under the sun' and really think
that looking at the user-agent is a good idea (It's not..): Show a small
notice that the experience might be degraded. Politely. And still serve your
content to the user that is interested in what you have to offer.

Opera's market share? Uhm... Are we ignoring the mobile market or not for this
(useless) sidetrack question?

~~~
Wilya
They show a small notice when you access it via a direct link to a public
post.

And they definitely use some useragent white-listing. Feels like 2004 again.

------
klapinat0r
Too bad they still don't want Google Apps users. As they could be more likely
to be Google fans, continuing (also in invite phase) to exclude them does not
seem like a good idea.

------
cookiecaper
I actually missed this ad because I almost never go to google.com. I always
search via Firefox's search bar.

~~~
r00fus
I think power-netizens like you and me aren't the target market of this kind
of advertisement.

There are folks who still go to www.google.com to even launch an URL (more
details:
[http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2185238&cid=36242486](http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2185238&cid=36242486)
)

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Kylekramer
This is what I was talking about when I said people going on about invites,
nymwars and Google Apps were missing the forest for the trees. Google is
taking this very, very seriously. They aren't afraid to leverage their
previous success. Expect Google+ to be all up in search, maps, and a default
app on Android.

Whether this is a good thing is an entirely separate issue. Personally I don't
care for social networking, but Google has shown a unexpected amount of
panache with this. I do think it is such a singular focus that it may prove a
distraction (especially since I think social networking isn't a good fit for
Google). The stuff I love from Google may suffer. But they are going broke.

~~~
metageek
I think you mean "going for broke".

------
cek
I have been saying since G+ was launched that w/in 9 months Google will rename
it Google. It will stop existing as a separate brand.

It is too important to Google to own the social graph and keep FB at bay for
them to do otherwise.

~~~
jamesgeck0
That seems unlikely. +1 was integrated with their product before G+ launched,
they already own the social graph, Google+ is about as close to their brand as
possible without being their brand, and this name has gotten a lot of
exposure. They can't afford to confuse people if they're trying to get a
userbase on par with Facebook.

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fragsworth
Honestly, I missed it. I mean I did see something drawing itself out of the
corner of my eye but I didn't let it distract me from my search, which I think
counts as missing it.

~~~
po
You have remarkable focus. Please be careful when driving. :-)

I know that patio11 often talks about adding big-ass buttons to web designs to
the point where they seem absurd and this is is a good example of why.

------
jks
They're also telling me to "[w]atch a live Google+ hangout with will.i.am".
Does this mean they are loosening up their real name policy?

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jurjenh
Maybe I'm missing something, but for me google.com redirects to google.co.nz
(normally happens anyway) but doesn't draw the big blue arrow. Hovering over
the logo triggers the alt-text "You're invited to join Google+" and the link
will take you to the sign-up page, but that's it.

Maybe they're A/B testing?

~~~
notatoad
i wouldn't be surprised if the ad was displayed somehow selectively, but you
can try Google.com/ncr for no-country-redirect.

------
danmaz74
From my little observation spot, it looks like this is working - at least
some: today I've been added by 4 new people I know and who weren't on G+
before...

------
thurn
Presumably it only shows up for the <1% of Google users who are signed into a
Google account while they search, though?

~~~
blahedo
If you are not signed in, the arrow points to a button labelled "+You".

~~~
more_original
That's funny! In the German version the arrow points to "+Ich", meaning "+I"
instead of "+You".

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barredo
This seems desperate, bold or both.

~~~
sigstop
Why desperate? This is a valid way of advertising a product.

~~~
paganel
> Why desperate? This is a valid way of advertising a product.

If my boss were to come to me and tell me "let's draw a big blue arrow over
out entire front-page" I would have just laughed in his face. Now I'm afraid
it will be harder for me to do that.

~~~
ericd
Are we looking at the same tiny text link?

~~~
paganel
Nope. Some of us are getting a blue arrow in the upper-left-hand of the
screen.

------
staunch
Larry Page has vision and conviction. Exactly what Google has lacked in many
ways for a long time.

~~~
ChuckFrank
Google has consistently impressed with their fierce strategic determination
when entering the market well behind the leader. Examples of their late starts
abound such as Gmail, Chrome, G Docs, even their eponymous search engine
itself. The thrill of Google moving past competitors in gaining market share
has been one of the great business races ever. For these reason, I cherish
each time they enter a new market, and follow each and every move with great
interest.

Certainly Google+ hasn't been their first foray into the Social graph, but
it's their latest, and instead of thinking of Wave and Buzz as failures, think
of them instead as early social tests leading to better and better execution
for each subsequent entrance. While Google may not be the unequivocal winner
of the social graph in the long run, I think that it's far too early to bet
against them, especially since I think they are going to outmaneuver the
current competing champion FB which is essentially a gated community and will
likely suffer in the long term because of it. If I was given the choice
between the community in the gates, and everything else. I'd be like Google
and take everything else.

With all that in mind, their vision of freeing the worlds information is
currently the one leading the way, and with it will come Google + or
Google['+'] or whatever future variant that they offer.

~~~
j_col
> With all that in mind, their vision of freeing the worlds information is
> currently the one leading the way, and with it will come Google + or
> Google['+'] or whatever future variant that they offer.

Eh, freeing it from whom? From my perspective, they're the ones trying to
_capture_ all of the World's information...

~~~
ericd
They want to index it, but in using that info, it typically sends the user to
other sites. Facebook generally tries to discourage leaving Facebook. That's
the big difference. It's freeing you to explore the wilds of the web.

~~~
itswindy
_They want to index it, but in using that info, it typically sends the user to
other sites._

Once upon a time maybe. Now they send people to ads mostly, and Google
content.

------
WayneDB
I don't visit the front page of google.com often anymore, but I happened to
arrive there the other day and I saw that big blue arrow animation.

I thought it was an obnoxious, pitiful advertisement, another reminder to me
that Google is just a corporation.

PS: It's purely an opinion!

------
AllenKids
It offends me, blocked.

------
badclient
Whenever I begin to hate Facebook, I just login to Google+ for ten seconds to
see how much worse things could be.

------
skrebbel
Next up on TechCrunch: Larry Page sneezed!

------
ma2rten
This is just screaming for an anti-trust lawsuit like the Microsoft one, if
you ask me.

