Are you still using Google Plus?

Google is throwing in the towel on Google Plus (better known as Google+ or G+).

The current official shutdown date is 2 April 2019, as noted in the following announcement:

Shutting down Google+ for consumer (personal) accounts on April 2, 2019

Recently the Google Search Console Team also began sending out messages stating that all Google+ web integrations will stop serving in 7 March 2018. We received a message from them yesterday, since the GPWA website has had Google+ web integrations for years. In our GPWA member directory, we supported folks "liking" member sites with a G+ button since way back in 2011. You can see our announcement of that support here:

New GPWA Features Based on Google's +1 Button.

So the GPWA has some cleanup work to do. We will be removing the +1 button from our member directory, since it will stop working in the next few weeks.

And we also have a Google Plus page that will will stop supporting, and no longer link to.

If you are still using Google Plus, and have links to a page, or have any web integrations, you might want to clean them up as well.

Besides voting in the poll, be sure to share your thoughts in a post.

Michael

This is just sad. G+ has been one of the main ways that I've promoted my site. Over the years, I've gained many followers and have posted 100's of news stories on my G+ page, but now with the click of a mouse I will be deleting that page.

It never took off the way they wanted it. Too complicated to use for most and just not Facebook. Wonder what the next big social site will be as young kids keep away from Facebook. I personally can't stand it (Facebook that is)

G+ used to be quite good, but now it's obsolete and doesn't perform like it used to. There are way better social media platforms out there to work with. Google will also be removing notifications for their Google web products. They talk about it here:

https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/9231049?p=web_notification_alternatives&visit_id=6 36857172317844269-4135421423&rd=1

I never liked G+, 'cause:
1. Little traffic generation to my sites
2. Too much low quality posting and spam
3. The platform (user interface) was not friendly for beginners, making it less respected in my opinion.

Google+ just like GoogleBuzz was a failure. Because GoogleBuzz Failed it took a little longer the second time round to throw the towel in.

Personally glad its going as its one less share button and JS file to load.

G+ wasn't any good. It' hilarious that company that most people use couldn't create a decent social network. I mean the UX is terrible. Good they're done with.

Hardly surprising it was terrible and forcing a service on users doesn't make people want to use it.

Used it a bit when it was first launched but left it behind pretty fast... it didn't catch and it's google so I guess they can't do anything after all

Its like G+ never really took off and I think thats the reason behind their decision. You are correct, GPWA has some work to do adjusting to this with the +1 buttons.

Personally I think they placed themselves between platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn. Both very popular platforms, but with a specific focus (business and "fun") as I would call Facebook. G+ just didn't manage to create interesting feeds to make users and companies use it enough.

Never embraced google+. With the way google can grab and manipulate data and photos etc with surprising results I stayed clear of google+ ..... never trusted it.

I don't get all the hate in this thread for a company trying to compete with the undisputed social media behemoth. If anything looks like it may start taking away even a small percentage of Facebook's market share, they either buy that company or implement their own version of whatever it is that company is doing and kill them by making them obsolete. A lot of people don't realise just how much data they actually have, and just how extensively they use that data to maintain their dominant position in social media. It's beyond most people's comprehension level, and honestly not many people either think about it at all or care about it at all, even though it will affect us forever now the cat is out of the bag.

Google tried to take on an established social media giant that the majority of the world uses, and failed. There's no shame in trying and failing. If people were too scared to try because they might fail, we'd never have made any progress as a species. Nor would we have evolved much past our ancient hunter gather ancestors.

Apple was almost bankrupt until they re-hired Steve, his NeXT was a commercial failure, that doesn't make him a failure. He was probably just a victim of being a little bit too early for that type of product.

I just don't get all the hate for a company that tried to take on Facebook, a company that truly deserves to be hated in my opinion. While Google certainly isn't a saint, I trust them a lot more than I do Facebook. Sure, they could have made a Facebook clone if they wanted to, quite easily - but they decided to try something different, and it didn't work out. That's it - I'm sure the insanely clever people over at the Plex who were in charge of G+ are already working on something else new and ingenious already.

Rant over.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AussiePunter

I don't get all the hate in this thread for a company trying to compete with the undisputed social media behemoth. If anything looks like it may start taking away even a small percentage of Facebook's market share, they either buy that company or implement their own version of whatever it is that company is doing and kill them by making them obsolete. A lot of people don't realise just how much data they actually have, and just how extensively they use that data to maintain their dominant position in social media. It's beyond most people's comprehension level, and honestly not many people either think about it at all or care about it at all, even though it will affect us forever now the cat is out of the bag.

Google tried to take on an established social media giant that the majority of the world uses, and failed. There's no shame in trying and failing. If people were too scared to try because they might fail, we'd never have made any progress as a species. Nor would we have evolved much past our ancient hunter gather ancestors.

Apple was almost bankrupt until they re-hired Steve, his NeXT was a commercial failure, that doesn't make him a failure. He was probably just a victim of being a little bit too early for that type of product.

I just don't get all the hate for a company that tried to take on Facebook, a company that truly deserves to be hated in my opinion. While Google certainly isn't a saint, I trust them a lot more than I do Facebook. Sure, they could have made a Facebook clone if they wanted to, quite easily - but they decided to try something different, and it didn't work out. That's it - I'm sure the insanely clever people over at the Plex who were in charge of G+ are already working on something else new and ingenious already.

Rant over.

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+1 For the Facebook hatred. Still amazed people use it constantly

Social media is such a competitive, albeit lucrative area, can't blame Google for trying. Personally I gave it a go but it didn't really do it for me, having said that, personally Facebook has also it's course and I no longer have an active profile on there either.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by luckyga

...personally Facebook has also it's course and I no longer have an active profile on there either.

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Thanks from a gambling webmaster. I know I'm not missing out on Facebook socializing. Never liked them pushing games, cause I was an addict.

Hi everyone! Although we used G+ earlier, honestly, we were never a fan. For us, the community was never big. Also, it had a lot of inactive members.

now it is generally closed

Used to add it incase it ever really became useful for us on sites, it never did even though we saw potential in its reach within the goog platform, not a well put together or managed social product so no wonder it never competed

BR
Stuart

I used it 2013-2016 ish, I think when it first came out you definitely got a boost in the rankings and got the little picture next to your search listing. These things really did seem to boost the CTR and I think Google was definitely giving a ranking reward to G+ site owners, probably to try and boost early uptake of G+ with webmasters to try and create a wave. It never took off, but I definitely enjoyed the boost it seemed to give my sites at the time.

I even remember going to one of those Social followers sites and buying a load of Google Plus followers and I think that also helped boost the site a bit for a while as the rankings improved across the board.

My overall thought is, as a webmaster if you weren't on this you were missing a bit of a trick at the time, for maybe that first 12-18 months.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RacingJim

I used it 2013-2016 ish, I think when it first came out you definitely got a boost in the rankings and got the little picture next to your search listing. These things really did seem to boost the CTR and I think Google was definitely giving a ranking reward to G+ site owners, probably to try and boost early uptake of G+ with webmasters to try and create a wave. It never took off, but I definitely enjoyed the boost it seemed to give my sites at the time.

I even remember going to one of those Social followers sites and buying a load of Google Plus followers and I think that also helped boost the site a bit for a while as the rankings improved across the board.

My overall thought is, as a webmaster if you weren't on this you were missing a bit of a trick at the time, for maybe that first 12-18 months.

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Ha ha yes I remember the pics in the serps forgot all about them