????從許多方面來看，Google+就是拉里?佩奇的社交網站。Google+的開發工作早在佩奇擔任公司CEO之前便已經開始，但他從一開始就密切關注項目的進展。最初幾個月里，佩奇每周五上午11點都會參加項目團隊的每周產品評測會議。為了密切跟蹤項目進度，佩奇甚至把辦公室和高管團隊的主力都搬到Google+團隊所在的大樓。他為項目提供了大量的資源，使其成為谷歌誕生13年以來最大規模的一次工程投入。此外，他還將剛鐸提拔為公司高級副總裁，直接對他負責。佩奇還將數千名谷歌員工的一部分獎金與公司在社交業務上的表現掛鉤。

????Google+也是佩奇為使谷歌恢復曾經的靈活、負責的態度而進行的第一次嘗試，同時也是為了避免陷入“創新者的窘境”，這個曾經使許多成功的公司深陷困境的頑癥。在Google+項目中，公司拋棄了以往放任自流，甚至是無秩序的創新方式，代之以自上而下的方式。谷歌另外一位聯合創始人謝爾蓋?布林表示，允許“百花齊放”對谷歌依然非常重要，但“在所有花都綻放之后，你會希望能把它們收集起來，做成緊湊的花束。”

????谷歌要實現在社交領域的野心或許確實需要一些這樣的鐵律。谷歌之前對Facebook領地進行的幾次攻勢均鎩羽而歸。2004年，幾乎在Facebook面世的同時，谷歌就推出了第一個社交網站Orkut，但目前除了在巴西市場，Orkut網站早已被人遺忘。2007年，為了對抗Facebook，谷歌聯合Myspace和其他社交網站，推出了社交網站開放式平臺Open Social，結果也以失敗而告終。兩年后，谷歌又推出了Wave，但僅僅幾個月之后便被打入冷宮。2010年，谷歌推出Buzz，試圖將Gmail用戶強行拉入社交網站，但很快這便成為谷歌在社交領域中的最大敗筆：Buzz將人們的Gmail聯系人公開給其他人，導致美國聯邦貿易委員會（Federal Trade Commission）介入調查，并強制要求谷歌修改其隱私政策，同時必須接受政府監控，時長為20年。

????Buzz的慘敗讓谷歌警醒。谷歌內部一些最具影響力的工程師開始提出，社交網絡將給谷歌帶來致命的威脅。隨著網絡開始以人為核心，尤其是圍繞Facebook的人際關系圖進行重建，谷歌的影響力將被逐漸侵蝕，最終被時代所拋棄。這種論調讓谷歌高層大為光火，于是，一個雄心勃勃的項目很快出爐。這個名為翡翠海（Emerald Sea）的項目不僅要讓谷歌成為Facebook的強勁對手，而且要圍繞社交媒體對谷歌現有的產品進行改革。（剛鐸選擇翡翠海作為項目代號，預示著全新的海岸線與暴怒的海水并存。）

????經過一年多的醞釀，今年6月份，谷歌終于推出了Google+。結果如何？這個社交網站針對用戶的喜好，從Facebook中汲取精華，去除糟粕。你會發現Google+的主頁與個人資料頁、照片與游戲標簽，當然還有無休止的好友更新都與Facebook非常類似。谷歌+1鍵的作用類似于Facebook的Like鍵。不過，Facebook一直因肆意踐踏用戶的隱私選擇權而頗受指責，于是Google+則使用戶可以自行決定其所發布內容的查看權限。Facebook無法清晰地將同事、同學和好友分開，而Google+則推出圈子功能，用戶可以很直觀地將關注對象進行分類。Zynga等應用開發商在Facebook平臺上獲得的收入，30%將屬于Facebook所有，而Google+表示，目前其抽取的比例僅為5%。自從Google+推出以來，谷歌推出了100多個新功能，而且，佩奇表示未來還將推出更多新功能。在硅谷，幾乎所有人都曾認為，谷歌根本無法與Facebook競爭，但Google+的表現卻讓所有人——包括Facebook的忠實擁躉——大跌眼鏡。喬?格林就表示：“Google+非常出色。”喬?格林是扎克伯格在哈佛大學（Havard）的室友，他創辦了慈善社交網站Causes，該網站開發的應用程序目前在Facebook上運行。

????譯者：阿龍/喬樹靜

????In many ways, Google+ is Larry Page's social network. Early work on Google+ predated Page's ascent to the top post, but he has been intimately involved with the project from the start. In the initial months, Page dropped by every Friday at 11 a.m. for the group's weekly product reviews. To keep close tabs, Page moved his office and much of the executive suite to the building where the Google+ team was sequestered. He blessed the project with massive resources, making it one of the largest engineering endeavors Google has undertaken in its 13-year history, and he elevated Gundotra to the post of senior vice president, reporting directly to him. Page also tied a portion of the bonuses of thousands of Googlers to how well the company did in social.

????Google+ is also the first test of Page's plan to transform Google into the nimbler, more accountable company it once was, and in the process avoid the Innovators' Dilemma, the paralysis that grips so many successful companies. In the Google+ project, the company's freewheeling and sometimes chaotic approach to innovation was cast aside -- replaced with a more top-down style. Allowing a thousand flowers to bloom may still be important at Google, says Sergey Brin, the other co-founder, but "once they do bloom, you want to put together a coherent bouquet."

????Maybe some discipline is what Google's social ambitions needed. Google's previous attacks on Facebook's turf were an embarrassment. Orkut, Google's first social network, was born alongside Facebook in 2004 but is largely irrelevant outside of Brazil. Open Social, a Google-led effort in 2007 to rally MySpace and other social networks into an alliance to balance the clout of Facebook, flopped. Two years later Google introduced Wave, only to kill it after a few months, and Buzz, a 2010 attempt to shoehorn Gmail users into a social network, quickly turned into Google's biggest social faux pas: Buzz exposed people's Gmail contacts to others, triggering a Federal Trade Commission investigation that forced Google to revamp its privacy policies and accept government monitoring for 20 years.

????The Buzz fiasco was a wake-up call at Google. Some of its most high-profile engineers started making the case that the social web posed a vital threat to Google. As the web was being rebuilt around people -- and, in particular, around Facebook's graph of human relationships -- Google could end up on the sidelines, its relevance eroding by the day. The message rattled Google's top brass, and an ambitious project -- called Emerald Sea -- not only to create a credible rival to Facebook but also to transform Google's existing products around social media, quickly took shape. (Gundotra picked the name Emerald Sea to suggest both new horizons and stormy waters.)

????After more than a year of gestation, Google finally introduced Google+ in June. The result? A social network that cloned much of what people like about Facebook and eliminated much of what they hate about Facebook. You'll find familiar home and profile pages, tabs for photos and games, and of course the endless updates from friends. Google's +1 button works much like Facebook's Like. But where Facebook is perpetually accused of running roughshod over people's privacy preferences, Google+ made it very easy to decide who can see what users post on the site. Facebook lacked a good way to separate workmates from classmates from real friends, so Google+ was built around Circles, an intuitive way to group people in buckets. Facebook takes 30% of the revenue that app developers like Zynga make on its platform, so Google+ said it would take only 5% for now. Since the launch, Google has rolled out more than 100 new features, and Page says there is much more to come. In Silicon Valley, where everyone had given up on the idea that Google could compete with Facebook, Google+ caught everyone -- including Facebook loyalists -- by surprise. "Google+ was impressive," says Joe Green, one of Zuckerberg's Harvard roommates and the founder of Causes, an application built to run on Facebook.