Google+ was launched in 2011, with Facebook and Twitter to compete with. However, despite Google’s efforts, the platform failed to win people over, even after leveraging on YouTube’s influence.
As of today, the platform will vanish-there will be no more sign-up buttons or pages to drop comments. The platform will be lost or dead!
One major factor contributing to its fall was its lack of security. Even though analysts didn’t foresee a bright future with the social network from the onset, Google persisted and only decided to shut it down after a data breach scandal in 2018. The Wall Street Journal reported a data-exposing bug which had affected about 500 profiles. While the company refuted the claim on the ground of no evidence, it didn’t push further. It decided it was time to take a bow, instead of flogging a dead horse by tightening its security.
Its termination date was set for August 2019. However, another security flaw popped up in December, a more severe case which allegedly affected over 52 million users. This was the last straw for the company. It decided to shut down altogether. There was no need working hard to make a platform which had existed for eight years without engagements to be more secure. The termination date was backdated to April, giving subscribers just enough time to enable them to download their data.
Talking about the number of subscribers, it’s worthy of note to mention that despite the large followership, it still crumbled due to lack of engagements. Why there were no engagements like Facebook and Twitter enjoyed? Aside from the fact that it was a latecomer, it operated a stringent real-name policy. It didn’t hesitate to ban people who used screen names or pseudonyms. It went ahead to lock them out from their Gmail accounts.
With Facebook, one could react to posts by “liking”; Twitter had “favourites”. With Google+, it was an awkwardly branded “plus one” button. I never heard anyone talk about “plus oning” a post or comment. Although the platform had similar features typical of social networks, such as the ability to share photos and status updates, it was either the users didn’t resonate with its awkward sounding terminologies, or the site wasn’t addictive enough to get loyal subscribers. It failed to ignite the interest of subscribers.
It admitted in a blog post that “90% of user sessions are less than five seconds”, contrary to the amount of time spent on Facebook and Twitter.
Today, Google+ joins a host of other failed projects in the Google cemetery created by Naeem Nur.
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