[jrockway]

are betting the entire company on it

So you're saying that if people don't like Google Plus, they are going to stop clicking AdWords, move their email to Hotmail, and start using Yahoo for search? That seems very unlikely to me.

This is just a regular product launch. It gets a lot of hype because people like their friends but hate Facebook.

[rogercosseboom]

I think what the comment was referring to was that, in Google's view, the social market is becoming more and more important to the greater internet community. Not having a viable product in this space could cost Google dearly later– specifically in those areas you sarcastically mentioned.

[Daniel14]

> This is just a regular product launch.

My point was that Google is putting a lot of effort into competing with Facebook, and that they're willing to use all their other products to succeed with Plus. Think about their bonuses being tied to social, Larry Page as the new CEO, the +1 button in the search results, the renaming of Blogger and Picasa, the redesign of Calender, Gmail etc., the new notification bar accross all Google sites... These aren't just regular product updates, but show how serious Google really is about getting into social, ie keeping facebook at bay.