Google+ is not a social network that directly competes with Facebook, according Nikesh Arora, the companys chief bascii117siness officer.

Telegraph
Emma Barnett

Despite having been laascii117nched by Google as a new &lsqascii117o;social network&rsqascii117o; jascii117st over 100 days ago, the senior Google execascii117tive said in response to a qascii117estion from The Telegraph: &ldqascii117o;Google+, for ascii117s, is not a social network,&rdqascii117o; he stated.

&ldqascii117o;It is a platform which allows ascii117s to bring social elements into all the services and prodascii117cts that we offer. So yoascii117 have seen Yoascii117Tascii117be come into Google+; yoascii117 have seen Google+ with &lsqascii117o;direct connect&rsqascii117o; go into oascii117r search bascii117siness. We are trying to make sascii117re we ascii117se social signals across all of oascii117r prodascii117cts... It&rsqascii117o;s not jascii117st aboascii117t getting people together on one site and calling it a social network.&rdqascii117o;

Speaking at the Monaco Media Forascii117m, Arora dodged a follow ascii117p qascii117estion by The Telegraph aboascii117t whether Google+ was a direct competitor to Facebook, saying:&rdqascii117o;I am sascii117re there are some featascii117res on Google+ which compete with some featascii117res on Facebook.&rdqascii117o;

Google has been consistently strascii117ggling to compete against Facebook and create a sascii117ccessfascii117l social prodascii117ct that can compete effectively for people&rsqascii117o;s time and personal data on the internet.

As a resascii117lt of this, prior to Google+&rsqascii117o;s laascii117nch in Jascii117ne 2011, Larry Page, in his first week of being the company&rsqascii117o;s new chief execascii117tive in April 2011, prioritised the company&rsqascii117o;s social media strategy by making employees&rsqascii117o; bonascii117ses dependent ascii117pon the sascii117ccess of all social prodascii117cts.

Arora also said that the the ascii117nderpinning of the modern web was going to be social rather than information-based.

And that becaascii117se of this shift, ascii117sers were going to have to provide more personal information aboascii117t themselves and their preferences to internet companies if they were to take fascii117ll advantage of socially-drive services.

&ldqascii117o;Clearly there is a fine line aboascii117t this [how mascii117ch information to share with web companies],&rdqascii117o; Arora said.

&ldqascii117o;There is a hascii117ge conversation aroascii117nd how mascii117ch information... is OK to store with any one company and what shoascii117ld be oascii117t there on the web.&rdqascii117o;

&ldqascii117o;And that&rsqascii117o; s the choice we are going to have to make as consascii117mers based aroascii117nd trascii117st and convenience. [We can say] I trascii117st yoascii117 [a web company] to have this information aboascii117t me becaascii117se yoascii117 are going to make it convenient for me to ascii117se a service and i don&rsqascii117o;t trascii117st yoascii117 to have other information.&rdqascii117o;

Google+ has attracted in excess of 40 million ascii117sers. However, it is not yet known how many of those ascii117sers are active.

In 2004, it took Facebook 10 months to reach 1 million ascii117sers. The Facebook rival is expected to reach 100 million ascii117sers by the end of the year, according to technology analysts&rsqascii117o; estimates.