The dust has finally settled on the Google+ news from early October. The news that Google was shuttering its social network Google+ was a surprise but not a shock.
Think of how often you visited Google+ compared to the frequency with which you check Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. While Google+ was launched in June 2011 as a competitor to Facebook, the social network did not gain the traction or addiction level of its rival.
In fact, in the Google blog post announcing the Google+ shutdown, Ben Smith, VP of Engineering at Google said, “…This review crystallized what we’ve known for a while: that while our engineering teams have put a lot of effort and dedication into building Google+ over the years, it has not achieved broad consumer or developer adoption, and has seen limited user interaction with apps.”
“The consumer version of Google+ currently has low usage and engagement: 90 percent of Google+ user sessions are less than five seconds.”
Security flaw notwithstanding, it’s clear that Google+ was not doing for the company what was initially hoped. As a result, Google+ will be fully closed down for consumers in August 2019. However, Google+ will continue with some tweaks and updates for the enterprise sector. Read more
