RIP Google+: Search engine giant all set to shut down its social networking platform

google apps
Google Apps REUTERS/Mike Blake/Files

Search engine giant Google has started the initial proceedings of shutting down its failed social networking platform Google+. The shutdown process began on April 02, and technicians in Google are now busy deleting contents uploaded by users. Even though Google+ succeeded in amassing millions of users since its introduction, the social networking platform failed to hook them up with the site, and very few of the users were actually posting something on the news feed.

This lack of acceptance by the users and the unquestionable popularity of Facebook and Twitter caused Google+ to gradually fade into obscurity over the ensuing years since its launch.

People who open Google+ now will now see a heartbreaking message, 'Google+ is no longer available for consumer and brand accounts. From all of us on the Google+ team, thank you for making Google+ such a special place.'

Even though there was very less number of people who used Google+ regularly, these loyal users may find it hard to accept the fact that their favourite social networking platform is no more.

The initial process of shutting down Google+ comes just a few months after a bug exposed the date of more than 5,00,000 users. It was also reported that Google was well aware of the data breach before the company disclosed it publicly. A couple of months later, the company admitted that a separate breach exposed the personal data of 52.5 million users.

Due to these unexpected data breaches, the company had revealed that they might shut down Google+ much earlier than expected, and now, they have started the initial steps to say adios to this social networking platform forever. Apart from the data breach, the social media giant also made it clear that very low usage of the consumer version of Google+ has also played a crucial role in making this decision.

Earlier, the tech company Google has decided to shut down its popular messaging service, Hangouts, which was launched in 2013, by 2020. The service has been losing features in recent years as the company stopped updating the app and has taken away the SMS messaging. Many reviewers also stated that the service is showing signs of age, bug and performance issues.

READ MORE