Google’s image problem with Google+

The New York Times posted a back-and-forth piece today about Google+ having an image problem ironically within hours after the search engine announcing it rebranded Android Market to “Google Play.”

Reports circulated recently over ComScore’s latest findings that show users only spend three minutes a month on Google+. Meanwhile, the study revealed people spend close to 7 hours a month on Facebook.

Google itself combats public whispers over such studies with its own statistics. Google’s Vice President for Engineering Vic Gundotra told the NYT that Google+ has approximately 100 million accounts with over 50 million daily users.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based Company has a suite of integrated products, such as YouTube, Google.com, and Google Play, which contribute to Google+’s fan base. Gundotra’s statistics include the amount of people who regularly use such products.

In other words, Gundotra indicates that signing up for a Google+ account and regularly using any related product makes one an active daily user of the social network, but he also said his figures do not accurately depict what is happening at Google.

“This is just the next version of Google,” said Gundotra to the NYT, while comparing Google+ to a social blanket that covers the entire Google experience. “Everything is being upgraded. We already have users. We’re now upgrading them to what we consider Google 2.0.”

More information is available below.

The debate over Google+ will continue for a while, because the Internet giant is Hell-bent on making the service successful under its new ecosystem despite the convolute of naysayers who consider the service void of human interaction.

”We have started the social engines at Google and we’re about to step on the gas,” Gundotra contended.

The firm is heavily integrating its products in 2012 by unifying them and implementing social features and personalized search. One ecosystem is clearly on the agenda, so it makes sense for Google to announce another integrated service like Google Play.

The cloud-based entertainment hub is an extended Android Market that is no longer Android specific. Any Google account holder can use Google Play, similar to how any Google user can access Google+, YouTube, and every other product offered by the search engine. The revamped marketplace looks interesting, but it is slightly behind competitors that have already adapted to cloud computing. Moreover, the new brand could confuse the average user.

With that said, Google’s image problem with Google+ is far bigger than inflated statistics claims, because the real issue concerns the slow unveiling of the Google 2.0 ecosystem.

It is worth noting that Google’s new privacy policy is a direct byproduct of Google’s unified ecosystem that often comes under fire during discussions about the social network’s image. Playing catch-up with its services has indeed created an ecosystem for Google —an ecosystem that involves contradictory statistics, brand flip-flopping, and criticism over privacy issues.