SOCIAL: One the one hand, Google's inability to get any significant traction for its Google Plus service could be seen as just another case study to fit the "fail fast, fail often" lexicon. But equally, and probably more accurately, Google - and it's champions - positioned Plus as a potential Facebook killer, with lots of bells and whistles attached to try and grab the social attention of its vast number of users. Read more on Mashable.
Create a social network or risk everything - the original internal pitch to fellow employees around the Googleplex.
That was the original pitch for Google's Facebook rival, Google+, a refrain hammered over and over by the social network's chief architect, Vic Gundotra, in meetings with the company's top brass.
Gundotra, described by colleagues we spoke with as charismatic and politically-savvy, eventually persuaded Larry Page, the Google cofounder who returned as CEO at the beginning of 2011 after a decade behind the scenes, to turn the company upside down for this cause.
Read more on Mashable
NB:Google Plus image via Shuuterstock.