Google’s Chief Executive, Larry Page, has a lot to share in a recent interview with Wired magazine. One surprising thing that came up in conversation was his disappointment in Facebook. He said they have not been living up to his expectations. He went on to say that “they’re also doing a really bad job on their products.”
Paige boasted about Google+ and the possibilities for growth, then explained that there is plenty of room for competition in this market.
Google+ offers a way to create a profile, add people to your circles, decide what circles to share with, join communities based on your interests, share photos, video chat, play games and more. It was initially launched back in June of 2011 as invitation-only, but soon opened up to anyone who wanted to sign up because the demand was too high. As of December, 2012 it had 500 million registered users and 235 million active users per month.
Facebook is their biggest rival as far as social media goes, with over 1 billion users. The big difference is the habits of their members. Those using Google+ spend an average of 3.3 minutes per month using the site, while Facebook users spend 7.5 hours per month on the site. Google’s only hope is to further integrate Google+ into their other services.
Profiles are enabled to connect Gmail, Google Local, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, app reviews, authorship, Blogger, websites and more. This trend is expected to continue. Even those who haven’t signed up as a registered user have ties to Google+ because of their affiliations with other linked sites.
The company is planning further expansions, according to Page, who revealed plans for their UK headquarters worth $1 billion and 1 million square feet of office space. Construction is expected to start later this year and be completed in 2016.
