The inside story of Google+ is already being told

Saturday

Jul022011

July 2, 2011

When a company makes a bold change in a new direction, it usually takes a couple years to figure out that was the moment when the company pivoted, and then it usually takes even longer to evaluate what happened and get the people involved to reflect on it.

Of course, everything moves faster in Internet time, right?

It looks like that's the case with Google+, the long-rumored uber-social project that Google is throwing all of its resources behind in what comes close to a bet-the-company move. Google+ just launched on Tuesday but there are already stories surfacing about how and why Google built it, the internal back-and-forth, and what the company is ultimately trying to accomplish.

Beyond that, because Google+ is a social tool, nearly all of the major Google leaders, managers, and engineers are on the service and available for anyone to connect to. And, many of them are communicating directly with users about the service, how they built it, its mission, upcoming updates, and more. I've never seen transparency like this and it appears to be one of the things that is winning over the early adopters who are part of the closed beta.

For some excellent insider perspectives on Google+, check out the three links below.

Steven Levy's insider account

This spring, Steven Levy released his book In the Plex that details the inner workings of Google, and apparently during the research process he got a look at the company building its super-secret social project codenamed "Emerald Sea." Once it was released this week, he told the story behind the project in an in-depth article for Wired.

Inside Google+ — How the Search Giant Plans to Go Social

What Google leaders really think about Google+

On launch day, All Things D published a piece with several answered questions from Vic Gundotra and Bradley Horowitz, the two Google VPs that headed up the project. You'll notice that the article has a very skeptical tone. Less than a week later, the press has already started changing its tune about Google+ as it has made a solid first impression on many of us (the low expectations probably helped).

Google Execs Explain Why They Launched Google+ Now, Before It’s Ready

Hertzfeld's role in the new product

Arguably, the most interesting insider account of them all so far is the one from Andy Hertzfeld. Yes, that's the same Andy Hertzfeld that played a prominent role on the orginal Mac team at Apple. He works for Google now and is the one who designed the excellent "Circles" interface that makes finding and organizing friends easier than anything you've seen on previous social networks. Hertzfeld posted a long update -- it's basically an article -- on Google+ itself, explaining his role in the project (people were giving him a little too much credit and he wanted to clear up the confusion).

Post within Google+ itself by Andy Hertzfeld