The Ending Demise of Google+:
Google announced back on October 8th, 2018 Google announced that they were shutting down their social media platform called Google+ due to low levels of user engagement. Everyone who used the platform had until April 2nd, 2019 to save their information from their social media page before it would come up blank.
Platform engagement was admittedly so poor that 90% of Google+ sessions users engaged in lasted a mere five (5) seconds or less.
The Information Dump:
In addition to poor user engagement, there was a massive data exposure that exposed many user’s private information. The bug got fixed in March 2018, but Google kept the information from users at that time. After not being able to confirm which users were impacted, shutting down the platform became the most viable option.
Due to low volumes of users, Google finally decided just to put Google + out of its misery and terminate it on April 2nd, 2019. Google+ is still available to Enterprise users, which was by far the biggest portion of the audience engaging on regularly on the Google+ application in the first place.
Google’s Foray Into Social Media Appears to Be Over:
Google+ was Google’s only real foray into the social media world. That appears to be over, at least for the foreseeable future as no other plans have been announced to launch a new social media platform in the place of Google+.
Other platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more have covered the social media bases fairly well for the time being. Google+ missed user engagement, advertising success, and audience to ever gain a true foothold in the rapidly-growing world of social media. The move that Google+ made staying open to Enterprise users was smart considering that their “ghost town” social media site was largely used for business advertisements in the first place.
Many people are still amazed that despite failures like Google+, the company continues to take calculated risks. Even if they fail, they learn from those risks and move on to try something new.
Conclusions:
Google+ might be joining the Google Graveyard of sorts alongside Google Answers, Google Buzz, and many others. While Google may have had its failures, it also has its successes. These successes empower Google to try new things, even if they don’t work out as planned.
Rest in peace in your Google Graveyard, Google+.
For further information about Google+, please feel free to contact us at Empowered Pulse.