RIP Google Plus. The end comes after an announcement that data from up to 500,000 user accounts may have been compromised for more than two years. The leak was discovered by Project Strobe and patched in March 2018. Google says there was nothing to point to that data was exploited. However, it does seem like a long gap between the March discovery and the October announcement.
You can read all the technical details regarding Project Strobe and its findings here:
Google Is Finally Sunsetting Google+: Here’s What It Means
In a turn of events that was impressively foretold by WordStream founder Larry Kim way back in 2015, Google is putting its long-beleaguered social media platform, Google Plus, out to pasture.
The End is Near for Google+
Google+ has hung on much longer than I ever expected. Goggle gutted Google+ in 2015 removing YouTube, Hangouts, Streams and Photos. The terminal social network will continue on limited social life support for the next few months to allow users to migrate any data they would like to save.
If you have any thing to save you had better do it soon as the Google recently changed the shut down date from August 2019 to April 2019 after second leak was discovered in November 2018.
Google will shut down Google+ four months early after second data leak
As I said in my 2015 article What You Need to Know About the Google and Google+ Breakup:
It seems that Google+ is “only MOSTLY dead.” As Miracle Max from the movie Princess Bride pointed out, “There’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive.”
Once again Google Plus is only mostly dead. G+ is dead to consumers, but still alive for corporations:
…We have many enterprise customers who are finding great value in using Google+ within their companies. Our review showed that Google+ is better suited as an enterprise product where co-workers can engage in internal discussions on a secure corporate social network. Enterprise customers can set common access rules, and use central controls, for their entire organization. We’ve decided to focus on our enterprise efforts and will be launching new features purpose-built for businesses. – Ben Smith Google Blog
So as Google+ Consumer version sinks into the sunset at the end of April, the sun will rise on Corporate Google+ a secure corporate social network. Good luck Google…
Leave a Reply