Inside Google+: Bradley Horowitz talks with Tim O'Reilly

Google is famously driven by data. Until Google+ that data was about web pages, places and news. Now that Google has added people to the mix, how will they use this data? Is social data really critical to Google's mission of organizing the world's information, or is it more relevant to their business model of advertising?

In a conversation with Tim O'Reilly, Bradley Horowitz (Google's VP of Product Management) will talk about Google's successful social network and the long-term value that it brings to users and Google itself.

This webcast is an extended preview of conversation taking place at O'Reilly's Strata Summit, Sept. 20-21, in New York City. Part of a weeklong series devoted to data, including Strata Jumpstart (Sept. 19) and the Strata Conference (Sept. 22-23), Strata Summit will look across the new economy of data, highlighting opportunities and challenges for business and society.

The conversation will touch on:
How the Google+ team thought about social data--design and policy principles that underly the service
What Google is learning from Google+ interaction data
Interesting or even surprising discoveries from Google+ data analysis
challenges and lessons on the infrastructure side

About Tim O'Reilly
Tim O'Reilly is the founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, Inc., thought by many to be the best computer book publisher in the world. O'Reilly Media also hosts conferences on technology topics, including the O'Reilly Open Source Convention, the Web 2.0 Summit, Strata: The Business of Data, and many others. O'Reilly's Make: magazine and Maker Faire has been compared to the West Coast Computer Faire, which launched the personal computer revolution. Tim's blog, O'Reilly Radar, "watches the alpha geeks" to determine emerging technology trends, and serves as a platform for advocacy about issues of importance to the technical community. Tim is also a partner at O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, O'Reilly's early stage venture firm, and is on the board of Safari Books Online.

About Bradley Horowitz
Bradley Horowitz is Vice President of Product for Google's social products including Gmail, Blogger, Picasa, and the recently launched Google+ Project. He has also led product for Google's consumer application division which includes Gmail, Gtalk, Google Voice, Google Reader and Calendar. Before joining Google, Horowitz was Yahoo's VP of Advanced Development where he drove the acquisitions of Flickr and MyBlogLog, launched the Brickhouse incubator, and developed new products like Yahoo! Pipes. Previously, he was Co-Founder and CTO of Virage, where he oversaw the technical direction of the company from its founding through its IPO and eventual acquisition by Autonomy. Horowitz has a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Michigan, and an M.S. in Media Science from the MIT Media Lab.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• google+ tim oreilly
• bradley horowitz
• strata summit
• strata jumpstart
• strata conference
• oreilly media
• social media
• data analysis

[momerath42]

Please, don't "mmmhmm" into your mic so much Tim!

[stonetemplecons]

Particularly like Tim's comment about some of the criticisms G+ has gotten. To put in my own words, the service is really, really new. G has it out there, is learning, and appears to have the commitment to evolve the service over time. Let is develop, and give it time!

[Jack626122]

Google+ is simple and fresh, its how a social networking site should be

[Stollrock99]

How the hell did I get here with "One Direction"?

[TomateFarcie]

I really enjoyed watching this interview. Thanks to both of you !

[dailosguerra]

Really interesting enjoyable conversation. Thumb up.

[LyndonNAAutocrat]

@StbI990

???

I wish People would Stop and Think before posting!

Who says you don't sign up with your real details?

Who says G doesn't Verify you properly?

What is stopping G providing a 2nd field/input for a psuedo for public display?

The majority that want Psuedos are more than happy to go that route.

So the arguements against have No Standing what so ever.

[LyndonNAAutocrat]

@stonetemplecons

Further - G claims to have Usabiltiy and Accessability teams, as well as QA teams.

If you have experienced any of G's "product launches", you should be left sitting there wondering exactly what these "teams" actually do - due to the sheer number of obvious blunders, mistakes, problems etc. that make it "live".

Worse - for those that deal with G (TCs etc.), they get asked to report problems - constantly. Repeatedly!

Waste of time/effort as G only ask again 3 months later!

[LyndonNAAutocrat]

@Ahuka5656

Psuedo's is a big problem for G.

To start with, the excuse was that real names give Trust and Security. (I blew this apart by creating a profile similar to Googles Frances Haugen and posting as her).

Next Brian White of Google says it's because G cannot gaurantee "privacy" or "full anonymity" to those using Psuedo's.

They are incapable of separating "psuedo" from "anon" - they cannot seem to grasp that many people don't want anonymity, they want the name they've used for years.

[LyndonNAAutocrat]

@stonetemplecons

Right - so a company that is developing stuff should Not pay any attention to pre-existing platforms, nor should they note the growing pains those platforms have encountered, and should most definitely No listen to complaints/concerns raised by users of those pre-existing platforms.

No, instead, it is much more professional (as well as efficient and intelligent) to compeltely re-invent the wheel, from scratch!

Not.

[kenzoiddotcom]

@suprfluo Agreed. Joseph Smarr has made some similar comments on other videos (I can find a ref if interested), talking about the fact that if they do pseudonymity, they want to do it *right*, and that's hard. As you said, if Bradley would make these comments in writing somewhere, it would go a long way towards making people feel that they are at least being heard.

[suprfluo]

Mr. Horowitz should articulate what was said here about pseudonymous in writing. I agree with what was said, and find it perfectly reasonable and so pushing a post about this would satisfy many people.