New Google+ Head David Besbris: We’re Here for the Long Haul (Q&A) | Re/code
GoogleGoogle’s new head of social David Besbris
New Google+ Head David Besbris: We’re Here for the Long Haul (Q&A)
Google+ isn’t dying anytime soon, says Google’s new head of social media David Besbris.
Of course, you’d expect the person in charge of the social network to say so, despite the fact that it’s hard to ignore the chatter about the imminent demise of Google’s social media efforts following the departure of longtime Google+ head Vic Gundotra who
Besbris assured us Google has every intention to continue investment in the division. The former VP of engineering for Google+ took the reins from Gundotra in April, and now oversees all of Google’s social products. The Google+ team has new offices on the east side of Google’s sprawling Mountain View, Calif., campus, and rumors that the team was dwindling are also not true.
“We’re the largest we’ve ever been,” Besbris told Re/code in an exclusive interview. “We weren’t booted to any part of campus, we chose to come over here.”
We caught up with Besbris to learn what he has in store in the months ahead.
The interview that follows has been edited for length and clarity.
Is Google+ going away anytime soon?
We’re actually very happy with the progress of Google+. [CEO Larry Page] said this at the time that Vic transitioned that he’s going to continue working on building this stuff, that he’s very happy with it. The company is behind it. I have no idea where these rumors come from, to be honest with you.
What do you think is the biggest misconception about Google+?
People underestimate the connection Google+ has with its users around interests. I think people come to Google+ with this expectation that it’s going to be Google’s attempt to do some other product — we’re doing this to compete with somebody and it must be something like that. That’s not actually how we compete with products. We don’t approach products in that we need to go into [certain] industries because somebody else is doing something important. We go into this industry because we want to make users happy, because we see some software out there that’s scratching some itches.
This is how Google has always done stuff. There were search engines before Google, we just did it differently. There were email systems before Gmail came out, we just approached the problem differently. We had a different way we thought we could solve the core use cases [on social]. I think the social graph is pretty nuanced. The idea that everybody you [know] has the same access to you is just not a correct model for humanity. Our users love Circles. They love that Google+ has privacy built in as a feature from the very beginning. That nuanced sharing that we’ve led with, and others have added to their products which I think is wonderful, has been a big improvement to the industry.
Of all the social products you have, where does Google+ fall in terms of your priority list?
Very high. Photos, Hangouts, Google+ — I’d say these are my top three priorities. The Google+ app you see out there today is used by hundreds of millions of users, it’s actually something I use every single day with my friends and family and my interests, talking about photography and my unnatural affection for little squirrels and things like that. So I’m a passionate user of these things.
The company often talks about Photos as being one of the strengths of Google+ — what are some of the other strengths?
Video hangouts are pretty incredible. There’s no technology out there as refined for doing the multi-party video as what we have. In the consumer space, some of what we’ve seen that’s really incredible has been . That’s what we’ve seen take off like a rocket inside Google+.
What are some areas Google+ needs to improve upon?
We’ve always had really good mobile apps for iOS and Android, but we can never have enough energy or focus on mobile. I’m really happy with what we have but I think it opens up new avenues and new frontiers, stuff we can do with location that we’ve never been able to do before. The phone is this amazing thing, it’s a supercomputer that sits in your pocket with all these nifty sensors. I think as an industry we’ve barely tapped the surface of what this can do.
“We’re the largest we’ve ever been. We weren’t booted to any part of campus, we chose to come over here.” — Besbris addressing rumors that Google+ was shrinking and forced to move buildings
Where are you at right now in terms of users?
I don’t want to talk about numbers.
What’s the biggest challenge to bringing on new users?
For us, it’s been important to understand how users are really using Google+ and how it’s fitting into their lives. We really want to understand how it’s working for them and then tell that story to new users who are coming in so they have a really clean set of expectations.
Has that been a challenge from the beginning — simply explaining what Google+ is to new users?
Possibly. I don’t think Google+ as a single product has been overwhelmingly confusing to users. I think they absolutely get it when they come into the product. I think they come with a bunch of preconceived notions based on things they’ve read in the press, and it’s especially important in the early days when we were building it because no one knew what it was — it was just this new thing that they received an invite to.
We were setting a tone for how we were different, that we lead with privacy, that we had real-time built into the product, that we have great search, that we have face-to-face video, that we do incredible things with your photos. That’s a story we have to tell to users because they don’t get that in other spots.
In the past, people have complained that Google+ has been forced on them when they want to use other Google products. How would you respond to the notion that Google+ has been pushed on users who may not want it?
I only want people to use the software when they want to use the software. As you saw, we recently made
to the sign-up flow, and I think that was part of what the confusion was. The change that we made was really about asking users the right question at the right time so that it makes sense. There was no grand master plan [to force users to join]. But if it doesn’t make sense people make up their own grand master plan.
Why hasn’t Google+ ever had ads?
I think ads can be — when actually done right — useful. If you’re searching for something and see an ad unit that pops up, that is helpful [so you can] actually go buy the thing that you’re looking for. If you’re looking at pictures of your kids or you get an ad for a mobile home just because you happened to drive by a mobile home park, I don’t think that’s useful. Context is the thing that matters the most.
You want to show an ad when it’s most relevant, when it’s valuable. If you don’t, the ads won’t be great ads. They won’t convert well, they won’t be beneficial and it kind of just pollutes the space. I think for a social place that tends to be very intimate where you’re having conversations with people, you’re sharing pictures, you’re exploring things you’re really into, you don’t want to be at that point bombarded with noise.
Do you have any intention or plans to bring ads to Google+ in the future?
I tend not to rule anything out ever, but I don’t see that they’re valuable as they’re often done in the industry. So no. If we did, we’d try to put a nice Googley spin on them.
How do you look back on what Vic Gundotra did during his time running Google+?
Vic and I started the project together and he’s been a really good friend — still is a really good friend, actually — and a mentor for me since the very beginning. I have incredible admiration for Vic and a lot of respect. Building a new thing is hard, and building a new thing in the social space is probably extra hard. I think he did some great stuff in getting Google+ to the incredible place that it’s at.
Vic Gundotra
What have you tried to do differently to change things up since taking the helm?
He likes sweaters, I like jackets. [laughs] He and I are good friends and we’ve worked together many years but we do have a slightly different approach to how we communicate with the team, how we run meetings. But it’s mostly been stuff like that. There hasn’t been a wholesale change in direction or anything like that. You can print this: I think I’m a better photographer than he is. He’s a snappier dresser.
When you look at popular social categories like ephemeral messaging or anonymous social apps, are you drawn toward those products at all?
Social is very nuanced. I think there are some very different forms of communication, different uses for how people communicate. I don’t think we have to build them all. Anonymous speech as you see in Secret or Whisper has its own mix of pros and cons. Truly anonymous is very hard to do at scale.
The social networking space is really dominated by audience as much as features. I’m really happy with the audience that we have. They’re very passionate, they love Google+ to death. [They see] Google+ as a social network for their interests. That’s what sings to them. I think introducing ephemeral messaging or anonymous communication just because it’s a fad wouldn’t fit with the community or the users that we have. That’s not to say Google won’t make products in these other niches, but I think it’s bad to lump all social interactions into one product space.
What’s the end-game for Google+? What are you trying to achieve in the long run?
I don’t think of it as an end game, I think we’re in social — like we’re in everything at Google — for the long haul. We said this at the beginning of the company, we make long-term bets, we make long-term decisions. Social is a whole aspect of computing, much like any other area you would imagine at Google. Behind every one of these screens is a user, it’s an actual person. People are social creatures, they want to share things, they want to learn from each other, they want to ask questions. That’s really important for us as a company how we can deliver on that.
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Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.P/Q-type Ca2+ channel alpha1A regulates synaptic competition on dev...
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2004 Feb 18;24(7):1734-43.P/Q-type Ca2+ channel alpha1A regulates synaptic competition on developing cerebellar Purkinje cells.1, , , , .1Department of Anatomy, Hokkaido University School of Medicine, Sapporo 060-8638, Japan.AbstractSynapse formation depends critically on the competition among inputs of multiple sources to individual neurons. Cerebellar Purkinje cells have highly organized synaptic wiring from two distinct sources of excitatory afferents. Single climbing fibers innervate proximal dendrites of Purkinje cells, whereas numerous parallel fibers converge on their distal dendrites. Here, we demonstrate that the P/Q-type Ca2+ channel alpha1A, a major Ca2+ channel subtype in Purkinje cells, is crucial for this organized synapse formation. In the alpha1A knock-out mouse, many ectopic spines were protruded from proximal dendrites and somata of Purkinje cells. Innervation territory of parallel fibers was expanded proximally to innervate the ectopic spines, whereas that of climbing fibers was regressed to the basal portion of proximal dendrites and somata. Furthermore, multiple climbing fibers consisting of a strong climbing fiber and one or a few weaker climbing fibers, persisted in the majority of Purkinje cells and were cowired to the same somata, proximal dendrites, or both. Therefore, the lack of alpha1A results in the persistence of parallel fibers and surplus climbing fibers, which should normally be expelled from the compartment innervated by the main climbing fiber. These results suggest that a P/Q-type Ca2+ channel alpha1A fuels heterosynaptic competition between climbing fibers and parallel fibers and also fuels homosynaptic competition among multiple climbing fibers. This molecular function facilitates the distal extension of climbing fiber innervation along the dendritic tree of the Purkinje cell and also establishes climbing fiber monoinnervation of individual Purkinje cells.PMID:
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2003 Mar 18;100(6):3491-6. Epub
2003 Mar 6.Altered properties of quantal neurotransmitter release at endplates of mice lacking P/Q-type Ca2+ channels.1, , , , , .1Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.AbstractTransmission at the mouse neuromuscular junction normally relies on P/Q-type channels, but became jointly dependent on both N- and R-type Ca(2+) channels when the PQ-type channel alpha(1A) subunit was deleted. R-type channels lay close to Ca(2+) sensors for exocytosis and I(K(Ca)) channel activation, like the P/Q-type channels they replaced. In contrast, N-type channels were less well localized, but abundant enough to influence secretion strongly, particularly when action potentials were prolonged. Our data suggested that active zone structures may select among multiple Ca(2+) channels in the hierarchy P/Q &R &N. The alpha(1A)-/- neuromuscular junction displayed several other differences from wild-type: lowered quantal content but greater ability to withstand reductions in the Ca(2+)/Mg(2+) ratio, and little or no paired-pulse facilitation, the latter findings possibly reflecting compensatory mechanisms at individual release sites. Changes in presynaptic function were also associated with a significant reduction in the size of postsynaptic acetylcholine receptor clusters.PMID:
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] PMCID: PMC152320 Morphology and neurotransmission at WT and α1A -/- NMJs. Filled symbols, WT; open symbols, -/-. (A) NMJs from WT (Left) and α1A -/- (Right) mice stained with FM1–43 (Upper) and α-bungarotoxin (Lower) as pre- and postsynaptic markers. [Scale bars: 10 μm (Upper Left) and 5 μm (all others).] (B) Cumulative distributions of postsynaptic site areas are smaller in the -/- (P & 0.001). (C) Double-logarithmic plot of quantal content vs. [Ca2+]o/[Mg2+]o. At low [Ca2+]/[Mg2+] ratios, data were fitted with a linear equation where the slope of the plot was 2.7 for both WT and -/- NMJs (continuous lines) (r2 & 0.9). Quantal content values at high [Ca2+]/[Mg2+] were significantly different (**, P & 0.001). (D) MEPP amplitude distribution histograms. (E) Averaged traces of EPPs evoked by a 17-ms paired pulse stimulation (Upper, WT; Lower, -/-). (F) Paired pulse index (*, P & 0.05; **, P & 0.001).Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2003 March 18;100(6):.Pharmacological dissection of calcium channels supporting neurotransmitter release in the α1A -/- NMJ. (A) Quantal content in the presence of blockers for the P/Q-(200 nM AgaIVA), N- (GVIA, 3 μM), R- (1 μM SNX 482), and L-type calcium channel (10 μM Nimo) for WT (filled bars) and -/- NMJ (open bars) (n = 16–33). (B) Reversibility of SNX-482 block. Representative EPPs recorded in -/- during nerve stimulation (control), + 0.5 μM SNX 482, and after 45-min washout. Stimulation artifacts were reduced for clarity. (C) Dose–response curve for SNX 482 in the mutant NMJ (IC50 = 347 ± 12 nM).Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2003 March 18;100(6):.N-type channels are distant from the Ca2+ sensors and more abundant than R-type channels in the α1A -/- NMJ. (A) Average quantal content decreased when NMJs were preincubated with 10 μM EGTA-AM (EGTA) or 10 μM DM-BAPTA-AM (BAPTA) compared with DMSO-treated controls. (B) R-type channel-dependent transmission was not affected by intracellular Ca2+ chelators. Transmission mediated by N-type channels was drastically reduced in the presence of intracellular EGTA or BAPTA, as shown by the weak effect of ω-CTx-GVIA (**, P & 0.001). (C) Schematic representation of perineurial recording. (D) Application of both GVIA and SNX-482 did not affect the IK(Ca) signal in the WT NMJ. (E) SNX-482 sharply decreased the IK(Ca) signal in the -/- NMJ, whereas ω-CTx-GVIA (3 μM) was ineffective. (F) N-type channels dominate transmission at the mutant NMJ treated with 4-aminopyridine. Large increases in quantal content were observed on application of 4-aminopyridine in control conditions (open bars). Application of 1 μM SNX-482 had no detectable effect on m, but 3 μM GVIA strongly reduced it.Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2003 March 18;100(6):.Schematic representation of presynaptic terminal at the α1A -/- NMJ. (A) Calcium dependence of neurotransmission in -/- NMJ. Overall changes include a sharp drop in quantal content at [Ca2+]o/[Mg2+]o = 2, but little loss of quantal content at [Ca2+]o/[Mg2+]o & 0.2. This can be described as a uniform scaling down of m at all [Ca2+]o (downward arrow), yielding the red curve, in combination with an increased sensitivity to [Ca2+]o/[Mg2+]o (leftward arrow). (B) Hypothetical positioning of Ca2+ and IK(Ca) channels relative to other active zone structures. (Upper) WT NMJ based on description of active zone structures in frog NMJ (20), with modifications appropriate to mammalian terminals, where vesicular fusion occurs in the central zone between double rows of membrane particles (68, 69). Positioning of IK(Ca) channels and P/Q-type channels (purple). (Lower) -/- NMJ is hypothesized to contain R-type channels (red) in at least partial substitution for P/Q-type channels (yellow), and N-type channels (blue), which are numerous, albeit farther away from Ca2+ sensors and vesicle release machinery. (C) Microdomains of Ca2+ near Ca2+ channels in the WT presynaptic terminal (Top), in -/- NMJ (Middle) and in -/- NMJ in the presence of Ca2+ chelators (Bottom). GVIA responsiveness is lost because the impact of Ca2+ entry through relatively distant N-type channels is blunted by exogenous cytoplasmic Ca2+ buffering.Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2003 March 18;100(6):.Publication TypesMeSH TermsSubstancesGrant SupportFull Text SourcesOther Literature SourcesMolecular Biology DatabasesMiscellaneous
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