W6 Discussion: Case Study on Google: The Drive to Balance Privacy with Profit

Chapter 10: Google: The Drive to Balance Privacy with Profit: 10-3g Google+ Book Title: Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases Printed By: Kennisha Holloman ([email protected]) © 2019 Cengage Learning, Cengage Learning

10-3g Google+

In 2011 Google launched its social network Google+, positioning it as an alternative to

Facebook. By 2013 Google claimed the social network had 300 million members that were

active at least monthly. However, there were signs that these numbers were somewhat

misleading because most “active” users spent very little time on the site, far less than

average user time on Facebook. An independent analysis in 2015 concluded Google+ had

only 111 million active profiles, and only 6.7 million with more than 50 total posts. Many

industry experts have called Google+ a “ghost town.”

Even if Google+ has not ended up posing a significant threat to Facebook, it has been

successful in helping Google unify its products and better understand its users. Before

Google+, all of Google’s online products—Gmail, YouTube, Google Docs, Google Drive,

etc.—required their own separate logins, meaning Google could not tell if the same user

was using multiple services. Google used Google+ to create a single login system.

Furthermore, some features of Google+ have become very popular. Google Hangouts

unifies Google’s online messaging, text messaging, audio and video call, conferencing, and

other communications offerings into one service. Google Photos, an online photo

management, backup, sharing, and basic editing service, is considered by fans to be the

best service of its kind. Both of these started out as a part of Google+ but have since

become their own standalone services. Google has since redesigned Google+ to focus

more on its Communities and Collections features.

Chapter 10: Google: The Drive to Balance Privacy with Profit: 10-3g Google+ Book Title: Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases Printed By: Kennisha Holloman ([email protected]) © 2019 Cengage Learning, Cengage Learning

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