Digiday Publishing Summit: Prices rise Aug. 5
Hear from execs at The New York Times, Thomson Reuters, Trusted Media Brands and many others
Can a social network be too refined? John Borthwick thinks so.
Borthwick, the founder and CEO of the technology investment firm Betaworks, believes that Google+ was launched with too many features, before the company was able to see how people would actually use the product.
“I’ve been fairly bearish on Google+,’” Borthwick said on Thursday (Sept. 22) at the Digiday Social conference in New York. “I don’t think its working. I thought it was over-architected. Usually you start small and design the experience with your users.”
Borthwick drew a contrast between Google+ and Twitter, which saw many of its more popular features, like the retweet button, come from users.
Google+ for the time being, seems overly designed to keep users on Google’s pages, rather than send them out across the Web (a very un-Google philosophy). And the participation numbers don’t look good at the moment.
But Borthwick is willing to be patient with Google+. “They are a startup in a sense,” he said.
Trending in
Most Read
More in Media
What talent booker Joanna Jordan can teach about leading in media transformation
August 1, 2025
Whether it was Netflix transforming to content powerhouse or a Hollywood labor disputes fueling the creator economy, Jordan has found herself ahead of the curve.
Nielsen’s RealEyes partnership offers an outcomes measurement solution
August 1, 2025
Nielsen announced the first of a few moves toward determining outcomes in media consumption, as the industry aims to get a better idea of what advertising actually works rather than just whether viewers saw the ads
Dotdash Meredith’s rebrand to People Inc. formalizes a post-search media strategy
July 31, 2025
Dotdash Meredith’s (DDM) rebrand to People Inc. reorients the company around its flagship publication, and is the start of a more concerted effort to grow the publisher’s core titles.