In a last-ditch effort to save Google’s social media platform, Google+, the search engine giant is no longer requiring you to have a Google+ account to access other Google services. When Google forced anyone who wanted to upload or comment on a YouTube video to create a Google+ account, complaints and resistance to the platform went through the roof.
Google is finally caving in to the public’s requests and will start backing away from the forced integration; however, forced integration was just one of the many problems that hindered the growth of Google+. Failure to determine what the point of the platform was and the aggressive approach to growing the site definitely wasn’t helping either. In addition to the ambiguity of the social network is a list of other issues, including its real-name policy, putting G+ accounts higher in search results despite the lack of helpful information, cross-posting YouTube comments, and being forced to have a separate Google+ account for every individual Gmail account.
Despite the plethora of problems, Google isn’t giving up quite yet. In a recent blog post by Bradley Horowitz, Google’s Vice President of Streams, Photos, and Sharing, he states that the social site has become a place that is more focused on shared interests and, in line with that focus, they have already added new features called Google+ Collections, where users can share and enjoy posts organized by the topics they care about.
Though the sun is setting on this failed attempt, Google advises to wait a few months before deleting your profile. The disintegration will be slowly rolled out, and there is a chance you could lose your YouTube Channel if you delete your Google+ account before Google says it’s okay.
Ever since the head of Google+, Vic Gundotra, left in April 2014, we all knew it was just a matter of time before the doors shut on the social media ghost town known as Google+.