Goodbye, Google Plus! I say it now, with two months in advance, just in case. We can’t be sure of these two months either, who knows what will happen tomorrow and the mastodon decides to haste the shutdown. I am taking out now, all my links sending to my Google Plus profile and “business pages”. I’m glad I have never filled all my data online, as they desired. They already have enough about everybody, so the online socialization loses its sense. Besides, on Google Plus there wasn’t advertising, so, maybe that’s the main reason for dissolving it, not other pretexts.
Once upon a time, Google Plus
[source: thehackernews.com]
What Happened?
A few days ago, HootSuite announced me on all my accounts that on January 28, they will stop support for Google+.
This is following Google’s announcement of October 2018 that it is shutting down Google+ for consumers. Google has recently announced plans to begin shutting down the network’s APIs as early as January 28 and will complete the shut down on March 7, 2019.
– from HootSuite’s blog
I thought first that like with Facebook, one won’t be able to schedule posts on the personal profile, but the pages (considered “business” pages) will continue to survive on HootSuite with their 30 scheduling posts per account limitation, as there wasn’t frustrating enough. Not at all, it was worse.
On March 7, 2019, all Google+ APIs will be shut down. This will be a progressive shutdown beginning in late January, with calls to these APIs starting to intermittently fail as early as January 28, 2019.
We’ve recently determined that some users were impacted by a software update introduced in November that contained a bug affecting a Google+ API. We discovered this bug as part of our standard and ongoing testing procedures and fixed it within a week of it being introduced. No third party compromised our systems, and we have no evidence that the app developers that inadvertently had this access for six days were aware of it or misused it in any way.
We have confirmed that the bug impacted approximately 52.5 million users in connection with a Google+ API. With respect to this API, apps that requested permission to view profile information that a user had added to their Google+ profile—like their name, email address, occupation, age (full list here)—were granted permission to view profile information about that user even when set to not-public.
In addition, apps with access to a user’s Google+ profile data also had access to the profile data that had been shared with the consenting user by another Google+ user but that was not shared publicly.
The bug did not give developers access to information such as financial data, national identification numbers, passwords, or similar data typically used for fraud or identity theft.
In addition, we have also decided to accelerate the sunsetting of consumer Google+ from August 2019 to April 2019. While we recognize there are implications for developers, we want to ensure the protection of our users.
The list with compromised data is more complex, but I still have the feeling that the bug was just a pretext to shooting down the “social” network.
“One of the things that eventually happens … is that we don’t need you to type at all, because we know where you are. We know where you’ve been. We can more or less guess what you’re thinking about.”
– Eric Schmidt, Google’s former CEO
The discussion is much longer, and it doesn’t matter why they will shut down Google Plus for consumers. What was planned, is already accomplished: your data for their service, no advertising on your stream. You could “socialize” in peace. Nowadays we have GDPR. You’re asked for cookies consent everywhere you click on, here as well. Google never asked you (until recently, at least) if you agree their use of your data.
Good Bye, Google Plus – I’m Not Sure I’ll Miss You
I used to love Google Plus, I made a lot of valuable friends there, I met many new people I liked. I considered Google Plus the best Social Media venue, which in a sense, quite it was for two years or so. When they eliminated the social component, my taste for Google became sour. I lost my appetite, even if I already managed to be praised by 89k followers. It’s not much, I know, but I figured that they reflected directly the amount of time I put in the network. I have been so uninspired to completely ignore Facebook because I thought that with such tremendous weapons at hand (Google Authorship, automatic indexing, circle sharing), I would never have to spend my time there, too. I already neglected (in a way) my Twitter networks because 90% of my social media dedicated time was invested on Google Plus. I loved it. I’ve heard that on Facebook is somehow better, but I never believed that. I was right. Nothing could top a meaningful G+ debate where people from all over the world interact and express a point of view, many times different than yours. On Facebook, maybe, only if the people knew themselves in real life, they gather together to discuss. If they do it on a celeb’s post, that person rarely assesses the exchange. It’s almost like on Twitter, one speaks to the air, nobody listens, and the next minute your tweet is lost forever. One has to be on SUL or has to be monitored by the press in order for his/her tweet to have meaning, to be mostly criticized…
When they eliminate the authorship, I have been disappointed. My strongest social media fanfare, retract its support for my work. Not long after that, under “pressure” from guys on SUL, “Google Plus contributors”, “never affiliated with the company” – what a disaster, they expressed only their own POW, they never spoke in the name of the corporation – the circle sharing function was terminated. From that moment on, any newcomer would stay as he entered, a voice in the void, with a few trolls as “friends” in the best scenario. It wasn’t enough for the dedicated developers who listened to us, “the members” (now, until March 7 we are called “consumers”). They reached the conclusion that only your content is important, doesn’t matter who follows you, as for your connections, only Google employees could check them, because you, the “consumer”, would never know if certain someone followed or if you still are in their circles. The thing is that for sharing that kind of content, there already are specialized websites with better exposure than Google Plus as it became.
I also have to mention the biggest stunt they have pulled, Google Plus’ universal integration with all the other Google assets: Blogger, YouTube, Picasa, Gmail, etc… To each gmail address holder has automatically been assigned a Google Plus account. Same happened with youtubers and all the rest. This was for the membership, they wanted to balance Facebook and Twitter numbers. All these new Google Plus accounts became “Google accounts”, G+ being reduced again to its social media role. “Social”? I mentioned what they did with “social”. With all the compensation for my new (already old) friends gained there, I now regret all the time lost on Google Plus instead of checking out Facebook and Instagram. Take Instagram: with a solid routine there, with your pretty picture, what would you need G+ for? Goodbye, Google Plus…
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I agree 100% with everything you say. All the mixed emotions, all the disappointment. I feel conned and betrayed by Google.
Google’s notorious “Suggested User List” (SUL) was a giant shared circle. Google also allowed any user to publish personal shared circles — i.e., a personal suggested user list. The difference was that Google’s, being the “official” shared circle, guaranteed its members millions of followers. Still, the personal SULs (aka circle shares) acted somewhat as a counterweight to that.
This worked fine till certain top members of the “official” SUL got greedy. They figured that if Google abolished personal circle sharing, while retaining the “official” SUL/shared circle, they could amass even more millions of followers while no one else could climb the ladder to knock them off their perch. That turned out to be a tragic miscalculation. The moment Google did as they asked, the other millions of active users just left. So no one benefited!
I guess the lesson is, don’t get greedy. But I have a feeling no one was taking notes.