[cheriot]

Is that really any different that promoting a startup's product? Somebody has to try new things and shut down a large percentage of them. I'm surprised HN is so against it. Perhaps google should distinguish services that have long term commitments from those that don't?

[hga]

I think your second sentence has got it: Google is not a startup, and it should distinguish between startup like experiments and things they are making a long term commitment to. And even then G+ shows they won't be perfect, but they can at least try.