This Article is From Apr 25, 2014

Google's top social networking executive Vic Gundotra departs

Google's top social networking executive Vic Gundotra departs

File photo of Vic Gundotra

San Francisco: Google's top social networking executive is leaving the Internet company after a nearly eight-year stint highlighted by an audacious challenge to Facebook.

Vic Gundotra fittingly announced his departure in a Thursday post on Google Plus, a social network that debuted nearly three years ago. Gundotra had been in charge of Google Plus as the Mountain View, California, company's senior vice president of social.

Gundotra didn't explain his reasons for leaving nor did he reveal what he plans to do next.

In his own post, Google Inc. CEO Larry Page praised Gundotra for building Google Plus from scratch.

Although it boasts more than 500 million users, Google Plus is still struggling to lure people into hanging out on its service for as long as they do on Facebook.

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