Google+, a complete failure?

Google+, Google’s Facebook alternative and one of the largest launches in the company’s history, as an instant success when it rolled out in Beta.  Everyone wanted an invitation, and its exclusivity made it desirable (and made us more forgiving of its flaws).  Then, it went public, people rushed to sign up, and then… nothing.  Traffic died off, and Google’s senior engineer Steve Yegge has noticed that.  Steve Yegge, a Google employee, called Google+ a complete failure in public.  Amusingly, the 4000-word rant was intended for release on Google+ within a Google-only circle; instead, it went out far and wide.

“Google+ is a prime example of our complete failure to understand platforms from the very highest levels of executive leadership (hi Larry, Sergey, Eric, Vic, howdy howdy) down to the very lowest leaf workers (hey yo).  We all don’t get it,” admitted Yegge, who will face no negative public repercussions for his rant against Google+ as it was his personal opinion.  “That one last thing that Google doesn’t do well is platforms.  We don’t understand platforms.  We don’t ‘get’ platforms.  Some of you do, but you are the minority. … I was kind of hoping that competitive pressure from Microsoft and Amazon and more recently Facebook would make us wake up collectively and start doing universal services … as our top priority from now on.  But no.  No, it’s like our 10th or 11th priority.  Or 15th, I don’t know.  It’s pretty low.”

The full text of the rant is available on Rip Rowan’s Google+ stream.  It’s both interesting and true, as it’s the sort of honest assessment of problems that you can only get when you think no one else is going to be paying attention.  Kudos to Steve for having the guts to write it, and kudos to Google for allowing him to keep his job and keep the post active.

Tags: Google, social networking, Google+, Google Plus, Google engineer calls Google+ a failure, Google+ a failure, Steve Yegge, Rip Rowan, internal memo leaked, private Google+ post leaked, accidentally posted a private post public, mistakes, public relations, internal opinion on Google+

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