Google acquires Polar polling startup, part of an effort to improve Google+

Google+ may not compete on the same level as Facebook when it comes to mainstream popularity (which many of us G+ users prefer that way…), but the company continues to work towards improving the service, even if rumors earlier this year suggested Google was phasing back its plans for the social network.

The latest effort to make Google+ even better apparently involves the purchase of Polar, a startup that focuses on polling mobile device users for their opinions. So what’s that have to do with Google+? While its unclear what Google’s plans are for the Polar team, it seems that Polar’s founder Luke Wroblewski and several of the startup’s employees are joining the Google+ team.

Polar already serves various companies and mobile apps with polls right now, though they will be shutting down this support by the end of the year. Again we don’t know what Polar’s team is doing or how its technology might affect G+, though Google VP of engineering Dave Besris did have this to say about the new team members coming from Polar:

I’m thrilled to welcome +Luke Wroblewski and the talented Polar team to Google! They’ll be joining our team and helping us make G+ even more awesome.

The big takeaway is that, even if Google really is putting less focus on G+ than it has on the past (something we can’t say for sure), at least they aren’t giving up on their social network just yet. What do you think of Google+? For those that don’t regularly use it, what changes would you need to see before you became interested? If you are a fan, what is it about G+ that keeps you coming back for more?

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