Google has announced its plans to further separate its sinking ship of a social media platform, Google+, from its other services.
Crushed Dreams
When Google launched Google+ back in June 2011, it was touted as another mythical Facebook-killer. The platform was exclusive and users needed to be invited in order to use the service. Even with the gate, Google managed to accumulate 20 million unique visitors to the site within the first three months of its launch.
Unfortunately for Google, Google+ just didn’t pick up the steam it needed in order to close the massive gap Facebook had on it. In an official blog post, Google mentioned that users weren’t really fond of using Google as their social “identity” when using Google’s services, though they did like the convenience of using one account to log into the services.
Moving Away from Google+
So, with that in mind, Google has decided to let users create, share, communicate, create a YouTube channel and more with just a normal Google Account. The first step involves separating YouTube comments from Google+ posts. This is a welcomed change since YouTube comments have a way of diluting legitimate discussion due to the fast-paced nature of the commenting system and its incoherent formatting.
Google+ Will Find Life After Death
Bradley Horowitz, VP of streams, photos, and sharing, has stated that Google won’t be giving up on Google+, however.
“We’re going to continue focusing Google+ on helping users connect around the interest they love, and retire it as the mechanism by which people share and engage within other Google products,” said Horowitz.
The idea is to shift the focus of Google+. Rather than trying to use it as a platform to encompass all of Google’s services, it will simply exist as a way for others to connect through what they love. With this in mind, Google+ will still be launching its newest feature, Google+ collections. This feature introduces a new way for users to group their posts by topic.
Every collection will be focused on a specific topic, allowing users to have a streamlined way of organizing their interests.
With Google+ Photos recently canned and now Google+ being separated from all of Google’s other services, it will be interesting to see what other changes Google will be announcing in the future.
