What's ahead for Google Plus?

What was wrong?

This more pronounced stand by Google into social networking seemed like a natural move for the behemoth. Competing with Facebook and Incorporating different services into one, easily manageable profile. From Youtube to Gmail, Hangouts to Photos, the integration of all these services seemed like a logical step, so why did it, based on collective internet opinion, suck?

Well, remember when everyone got forced into mandatory Google Plus profiles? The outcry from the YouTube community at being forced into making the full name change, the forced Gmail integration and basically being forced into a new social network that, for the large part, no one wanted or asked for. Google didn't so much as adopt willing new users, it took them from it's pool of happy kitten video watching users on YouTube, and told them to share kitten videos on it's shiny new platform. At least this is what I can gather from watching kitten videos on Youtube. 

To a vast majority of people, Google Plus was just another platform. They could already share kitten videos on Facebook, they could share dinner photos on Instagram and they could share innocuous thoughts on Twitter. Google Plus arrived late to the party with toys that everyone else already had, Google Plus had a cool, integrated toy admittedly, but so did Microsoft with the Zune. I guess what I'm getting at, is that Google Plus didn't give people anything new.

Was it all bad? 

I wouldn't say so, no. The SEO benefits of being active equated to snuggling up with Google's index crawlers and for a ton of small business' this chance was a dream. The chance to get in good with something that was destined to improve your ranking, while still being able to share personal and relevant content that you'd be sharing on Facebook anyway, was great. For marketers, entrepreneurs and business', Google Plus was a ticket to that first page, even if no one saw the content you were pushing out,  Google would know you were doing it, and you'd slowly begin to move up the rankings. Those little red +1 buttons were little tickets to traffic. 

Also, I did like the look and layout of it, even if we were limited to 3 posts a screen with all that white-space. Compared to Facebook and Twitter's information dense layouts, Plus seemed to favour the neater, less is more approach and it seemed people preferred information overload when it comes to tweets about breakfast and pictures of your new tattoo. 

How does it end?

In my opinion, it ends sadly for Google Plus. The cracks in it's beautiful white-space background are already beginning to show.

Quite recently, Bradley Horowitz announced the popular Photos service as well as Streams, will be split up. Horowitz didn't mention the fate of Google Plus but taking away two of the potentially most enticing aspects of the network, could leave Google Plus, in the Wave. (Please someone understand the reference)

You could ask, Horowitz? Why is he dismantling the work of Vic Gundotra? When asked, Google SVP Sundar Pichai quoted to Forbes:

I think increasingly you’ll see us focus on communications, photos and the Google+ Stream as three important areas, rather than being thought of as one area.

This taking apart and distinction of key features detracts from the 'all in one' attitude of before and also suggests Google sees more value in these services on their own. 

Vic Gundotra's recent departure from Google as he sets out on a 'new journey', also doesn't add light to the fate of Plus. Gundotra was Google Plus' team leader from the start and maybe his 'new journey' starts as Google Plus' ends. 

In the end, I don't think we'll suddenly see Plus just disappear, but maybe it'll be shelved. Slowly dismantled with features taken and placed around in other areas. Google has a habit of letting services grow old without updates and I honestly feel that Plus is going the same say as Wave, but it'll go out with more dignity than that, maybe it'll age like Tasks. 

Useful Links:

• https://smallbiztrends.com/2014/10/is-google-plus-ending.html
• https://www.zdnet.com/article/forced-google-plus-integration-on-youtube-backfires-petition-hits-112000/
• https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/04/24/report-google-to-end-forced-g-integration-drastically-cut-division-resources/
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2013/11/09/google-plus-creates-uproar-over-forced-youtube-integration/
• https://uk.businessinsider.com/what-happened-to-google-plus-2015-4?r=US
• https://searchengineland.com/googles-facebook-competitor-the-google-social-network-finally-arrives-83401
• https://www.businessinsider.com/google-plus-three-years-later-2014-6?IR=T
• https://moz.com/blog/google-plus-correlations

Man, I wish they'd update Tasks. 

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Luke is an online and social media marketer currently working at CVS UK ltd. The thoughts and opinions expressed in this content are solely his and are not representative of any organisation, corporation or franchise.