Oh No: Google Is Killing Google+

It was bound to happen. Google is finally killing its terrible social network Google+. The company announced today that it’s killing the consumer version of Google+ after it discovered some major privacy issues with the official Google+ APIs.

Google stated that the Google+ APIs gave third-party developers unauthorized access to some users’ personal data like their name and age, though the company believes that no third-party developer discovered the bug, or even used it to abuse users’ privacy. “We found no evidence that any developer was aware of this bug, or abusing the API, and we found no evidence that any Profile data was misused,” the company said.

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Google has even admitted that no one actually uses Google+. The company said that “while our engineering teams have put a lot of effort and dedication into building Google+ over the years, it has not achieved broad consumer or developer adoption, and has seen limited user interaction with apps.” In fact, 90%of Google+ user sessions only last less than five seconds.

Google has been moving away from Google+ for a while, with the company launching new features for its core search engine where popular individuals, like celebrities, are able to directly post updates within search results.

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Conversation 23 comments

  • johnbaxter

    08 October, 2018 - 3:36 pm

    <p>Oh, good. I can stop ignoring my Google+ account.</p>

  • darkgrayknight

    Premium Member
    08 October, 2018 - 3:45 pm

    <p>Oh No? That should really just be, Finally: Google ended useless try at being Facebook.</p>

  • webdev511

    Premium Member
    08 October, 2018 - 3:46 pm

    <p>For consumers yes, but I'd put money on them having contractual obligations to keep it up and running for commercial G-Suite customers. That said, after this, who's going to want to use it?</p>

  • skane2600

    08 October, 2018 - 3:57 pm

    <p>Google ignored the lesson of MySpace vs Facebook: You have to dumb-down social networks, particularly at the start. Having different categories of connected people is logical, but too complicated for the average user. </p><p><br></p><p>Of course, getting there late doesn't help either.</p>

    • ianhead

      08 October, 2018 - 8:02 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#351280">In reply to skane2600:</a></em></blockquote><p>They de-ephasised the use of circles very quickly after this became apparent to them early on, but it was already too late. They also pushed it way too bloody hard and people rebelled against it, so it became known not as just an also-ran social network next to Facebook, but "that stupid crap Google forces on me so I can leave comments on YouTube"</p>

  • FalseAgent

    08 October, 2018 - 3:58 pm

    <p>the real reason Google was so desperate to get into social was as that they could absolutely dominate online advertising dollars. The rumour is that vic gundotra kept pushing for Google to move into the social networking space and this was his pet project.</p>

  • waethorn

    08 October, 2018 - 4:16 pm

    <p>Of course, this likely has NO coincidence of happening the same day of the news of 500,000 Google+ user accounts getting leaked to third-party developers. None at all….</p>

    • dontbe evil

      09 October, 2018 - 3:12 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#351287">In reply to Waethorn:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>a less google fanboy article:</p><p>edition.cnn.com/2018/10/08/tech/google-plus-security/index.html</p>

  • digiguy

    Premium Member
    08 October, 2018 - 4:23 pm

    <p>Good riddance </p>

  • Boris Zakharin

    08 October, 2018 - 4:23 pm

    <p>Didn't we already have this story a couple years ago?</p>

  • MarkH

    Premium Member
    08 October, 2018 - 5:26 pm

    <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">"We found no evidence that any developer was aware of this bug, or abusing the API…or writing for the platform in general."</span></p>

  • martinusv2

    Premium Member
    08 October, 2018 - 9:28 pm

    <p>What I don't like is Google seems they choose not to disclose of it until now. If what it's true inside this article : <a style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: transparent;" href="https://www.neowin.net/news/google-leaked-users-personal-data-and-didnt-tell-anyone-so-its-shutting-down-google&quot; target="_blank">Google leaked users' personal data and didn't tell anyone, so it's shutting down Google+ </a></p><p><br></p><p>They like to disclose bugs from other software maker, but they sure keep their mouth shut when it's them. Sad thing is they will get away with this. Peoples are still thinking Google is not an evil company. Hope perceptions will change after this. </p>

  • dontbe evil

    09 October, 2018 - 3:10 am

    <p>"Oh No: Google exposed hundreds of thousands users data" (this should be the title)</p><p><br></p><p>but nobody scream because is not facebook, and as long they cannot fix it they shutdown g+</p>

    • Greg Green

      10 October, 2018 - 9:34 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#351447">In reply to dontbe_evil:</a></em></blockquote><p>Hundreds of thousands vs tens of millions might be a more reasonable reason.</p>

  • dontbe evil

    09 October, 2018 - 3:13 am

    <p> if someone, not google fanboy, wants to know more</p><p>www.engadget.com/2018/10/08/google-reportedly-exposed-data-for-hundreds-of-thousands-of-user/</p>

  • maethorechannen

    Premium Member
    09 October, 2018 - 4:11 am

    <p><em style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent;"> it has not achieved broad consumer or developer adoption</em></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent;">Maybe having anti-consumer (the real names policy) and anti-developer (no 3rd party API, no company accounts) policies at the beginning was a really, really bad move,</span></p>

  • Bibbit

    09 October, 2018 - 12:12 pm

    <p>Not gonna lie, I used Google+ to buy Ultraviolet codes. Got great deals all the time. Now I'll have to look elsewhere.</p>

  • OwenM

    Premium Member
    12 October, 2018 - 12:45 am

    <p>If only a responsible company had discovered this bug, disclosed it to Google, and then threatened to go public with it after an arbitrary 90 day period</p>

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