Google+ may have been the butt of a million social network jokes, but before you cheer too loudly for its demise you should also give it the credit it deserves for launching one of Google's best products. The writing is on the wall for Google+, its creator confirmed today, beginning a ten month long sunsetting process that will end in August 2019.
Today Google announced they'd close Google+ for consumers - that means you, reader. This closure is due to several factors, the most important of these being the huge privacy bug uncovered this week by the Wall Street Journal. Other reasons aren't nearly as important - but they're there nonetheless. Besides the bug, Google+ never really got off the ground.
Google is shutting down Google+ for consumers, axing the little-loved social network in the aftermath of a huge privacy flaw it failed to reveal until months later. Launched in 2011 to great fanfare, Google+ was to be not only a social networking site to compete with Facebook, but a mechanism to authenticate identity online.
Google has issued an update on state-sponsored activity, revealing that it has deleted 58 accounts and channels across YouTube, Google Plus and Blogger that it had linked with Iran. The disclosure comes days after Facebook made a similar announcement in which it revealed that hundreds of accounts linked to Iran and Russia had been purged. As with Facebook, cybersecurity group FireEye helped Google surface some of the accounts.
Google is known, nay, notorious, for starting dozens of projects and then killing them off when they no longer become feasible or practical business-wise. That has happened to both small and big projects alike, even revolutionary ones like Google Glass, Project Ara, and more. And yet there is one product that, despite being a ghost town and shadow of its former self, remains alive and has even gotten a new feature. Yes, that is Google+, which, starting today, will start surfacing interesting Topics to try and get you hooked on the social network.
Reports of Google+’s death are largely exaggerated, despite how some might want it to be. At least, that is definitely the vibe that Google is giving off by announcing a somewhat major refresh to its social network turned community platform. The new Google+ will make smarter use of space by hiding “low-quality” comments and taking advantage of huge, hi-res photos. Google is also bringing back Events functionality to the platform but is also on the verge of saying farewell to a classic look.
Google’s messaging platform strategy has never really been stable. Over the years it has switched from one system and app to the next, practically promising “this” would be it. Substitute “this” with Voice, Messages, Hangouts, and now Allo and Duo, and you pretty much get the picture. Unfortunately for those who actually invested in, for example, Hangouts, they might soon find their investments rendered useless as Google shuts down Hangouts’ API that third-party app developers once used to hook into the service.
The founder of controversial messageboard 4chan, a place often described as part of the internet's dark underbelly, might not be the obvious candidate to join "Do No Evil" Google. Still, that's just what's happened, with Chris Poole - aka moot - announcing this week that he's climbing into bed with the search giant.
Remember Picasa? Google finally has too, but it's decided to call time on the photo software. Picasa is getting the axe, the company has confirmed today, in favor of the newer Google Photos service that was itself spun out from Google+.
Today Google began unfurling their latest completely redesigned Google+ design, and with it, a major boost in performance. This newest design includes a much lighter load on your web browser and your mobile device's processor - not to mention your data plan. In a study published by Google Developers this afternoon, they suggest that they've succeeded in their goal with the social network, never downloading more than 60k of HTML, 60k of JavaScript, and 60k of CSS at any one time.
Google has just given their social network Google+ a major update, one they're calling "the new G+". This version of the social network is drastically simplified in both look and functionality, with new navigation centered on Collections and Communities. Playing to the social networks' strengths in this case means showcasing the communities that already exist and grow with speed - those that are bustling with activity and have visitors posting and commenting all day long. The home stream is redesigned as well.
Google appears to have torn another feature from Google+ with "Google AboutMe," a public place for your "About" information. Here you'll place your personal contact info, work contact info, Education and Work History, Places you live and have lived, Gender, Birthday, Occupation, and a list of sites where you contribute content or participate in social networks. At this time, it would appear that this system is not entirely separate from Google+ (it still has the Google Plus-centric "Circles"), but as with Google Photos, it certainly could be.