While they do have a steady band of loyal users (mostly those that are anti-Facebook probably), Google+ has still not hit its stride, despite being in the social media market for almost four years now. A new move by its parent company, which is of course Google, will try once more to reinvigorate the social networking service, this time by dividing it into two main parts, Photos and Streams, and giving it a new boss.
Bradley Horowitz confirmed on his Google+ page (where else) that he is indeed head of the Photos and Streams products. He has replaced David Besbris who just took over heading Google+ in April of last year, but now, there is no news yet as to where he is going. "It's important to me that these changes are properly understood to be positive improvements to both our products and how they reach users," Horowitz said in his post said. But as to what those changes are exactly, no one has said anything yet.
While other Google products like Gmail, Maps, Chrome, Search, etc have firmly established themselves as leaders in their respective categories, Google+ has failed to attain that level of popularity. It is still unclear what this new division of Photos and Streams will mean for the service and its users. In an interview with Fortune magazine last week, Sundar Pichai, the senior vice president for Google in charge of Android, Chrome, and Search (among other things), said that Google+ is not just a social network but also as the single log-in for all Google products for a user.
Pichai is set to speak at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona today and he may or may not talk about the future of Google+. It would be interesting to see how the Photos and Stream would stand alone and apart from each other and what this will mean not just for Google+ but for other products connected to it, like Hangouts.
SOURCE: +Bradley Horowitz
VIA: CNet