If you think Google+ is big already, just wait until you see what Google does with it next.
Google CEO Larry Page said during the company’s quarterly investors call on Thursday afternoon that he has been taken aback by how quickly the social network has grown.
Here’s Google+ by the numbers, thus far:
- Passed the 40 million active user mark
- 100 features launched in 90 days
- Over 3.4 billion photos have already been uploaded
See also: Google’s third quarter results shine, Google+ hits 40 million users
But being that the site only launched initially in July and publicly in September, Page reminded analysts and investors that this is really just the beginning. This isn’t just a feature war with Facebook and other social media sites.
Page explained:
Our ultimate ambition is to transform the overall Google experience, making it beautifully simple, almost automagical as we understand what you want and can deliver it instantly. This means making identity and sharing into all of our products so that we build a real relationship with our users. Sharing on the web will be like sharing in real-life across all user stuff. You’ll have better more relevant search results and adds. Think about it this way. Last quarter, we shipped the Plus and now we’re going to ship the Google part.
As far as search goes, the G+ button is live on numerous news sites and blogs, as well as throughout Google search results and other ad products.
Susan Wojcicki, senior vice president of advertisements at Google, added:
Users can now have plus one display ads on the Google Display network and have plus one buttons on search ads and results since the end of Q1. Although it’s still pretty early, our data shows us that ads are results that are socially annotated and are more relevant for users.
Page noted that along with deeper integration in other Google solutions, we can expect “consistent user interfaces for Search, News, Maps, Translate, and other Google products.”
That strategy will likely further unify the brand as a single, utterly comprehensive platform that attempts to cover every aspect of our lives.
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