Google+ was considered the next big thing in social networking when it was launched late last year. As it nears to complete one year in going live, it seems it has lost its place in the social networking world with old and new rivals going far ahead and more successful than them . Is it time we finally say bye bye to Google + ? This post tries to find out exactly that.
Google, the celebrated search engine giant decided to enter the social networking world last year by launching their own social network. It was called Google+(plus) and many were excited about it. I was also in that list (Click here to check out my post on Google+ when it was first launched ).
It did create a lot of noise with its similarities to Facebook and Twitter and with extra features such as Google+ Hangouts and Google+ Brand pages for businesses; It did create new experiences to users and many social media experts. It made them believe that finally there is a product which can rival Facebook and Twitter in the social networking world.
A year has swiftly gone by and the popularity of Google+ has steadily gone down. Many didn’t like it when Google decided to connect the users Gmail accounts with their Google+ accounts. Yet, the main reason for it to lose its place is the launch of new social media networks. The main one being Pinterest.
As this study shows, Pinterest has become the third most popular social networking website in the world. It is only behind Facebook and Twitter and has gone past Google+ and other social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Tumblr. Pinterest has become really popular with the ladies and seem to engage with users with its great business concept . LinkedIn of course has its own brand of users with many professionals using it to connect with others. Tumblr has its own unique users too. So Google + seem to be lost in identifying what its purpose in the social networking world really is.
Does this mean Google + will become irrelevant in the future? Does it mean it is the end of Google +?
The answer for the above questions lies only with Google who needs to find ways to improve their social networking site to get more engagement from the users. Maybe they could come up with a mobile version for Google+ which is compatible with their Android operating system. They could even improve the usability of the site with more clarity on how information is shown in their homepage or even partner with other social networking sites such as Foursquare as well as other Google products such as Google Maps and Google Play to give new experiences to its users.
They got to act fast and do it quickly since they are falling behind the radar with other social networking sites.
The end of Google+ will not happen soon since Google knows if they take it off , it will create a very bad image of the company. Yet, they need to act fast and should make a change. Otherwise , Google + will be another obsolete product that Google thought would be awesome , yet failed to meet user expectations.
Cheers!!
BuildingMyBrand 
And the sucky thing is Google is moving Picknick into Google+. Which means “if you wanna use Picknic, Join Google+ kinda situation” will what else can they do to keep it alive ??? Hope they’ll never reach the point of “Loging via Google+ to use the web search” .And since the Picknic site is going down after this 19th they might do something special with the Chrome browser. Or else it will be “AYYO SALLI” 🙂
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I cannot agree with you more bro. As you correctly said they might try to make users to create google+ accounts to do search as well but i think it won’t happen, it will take away a majority of their users and with already existing stiff competition. They cannot take a chance ( there was a rumor late last year that Facebook might start a search engine too in the future).
At present , Google + seem to be an utter failure. Unless they decide what to do with it sooner rather than later 🙂
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Google (Google ranked No. 2 the second most valuable global brand with a Brand Value of $111.5 billion, after spending 4 years at the top – http://www.millwardbrown.com/BrandZ/Default/Categories.aspx) has come down slightly after been in the top position for 4 years. This too can be taken as a valid point for this article :-). But as you they wont withdraw Google + as you clearly said. The reason for this is simply expalined in below article by Henry Blodget. Read it to find out the reason – http://www.businessinsider.com/and-heres-the-secret-reason-apple-is-crushing-google-2012-3
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Thanks a lot for the comment bro. you are correct, though Google+ has failed to meet the client expectations Google will not simply take it off since they know they will face a lot of backlash from their competitors specially Apple. Yet, the product seem redundant and I highly doubt they will make any progress with it or developments to it in the future.
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