Google senior vice president of social Vic Gundotra said on Wednesday at the Web 2.0 Summit that support for Google Apps will launch on Google+ in the near feature. Additionally, users will be able to enter pseudonyms for their name, rather than their actual information. It’s likely that pseudonyms will take longer for Google to unveil, though.
The company was initially hesitant to allow pseudonyms and actually deleted the accounts of those who entered them. However, Google+ creators have found that their users prefer the ability to avoid using their real name mostly for security reasons. This development may be good news for marketers who have developed brand identities for themselves and/or public figures who are famous with pseudonyms (how was Madonna to have a Google+ account before?). This upcoming development also suggests the company is one step closer to giving entities Google+ account, which means businesses might soon be able to add Google+ to the social media marketing mix.
In terms of Apps, Gundotra said the tools are not currently available because the team thought it would have more time before demand reached its current level. However, the rapid adoption, paired with inconsistent traffic numbers, showed the team at Google that it needs to continually add new features rather than slowly roll things out as they are perfected.
Brafton has followed Google+’s traffic numbers closely in recent months, as the network has seen rapid swells(L) at times but struggled to maintain active users. After lifting the invite-only barrier to entry in September, the social network received a quick 30 percent increase in traffic. However, it was unable to sustain the traffic.
