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Google has given the impression that it is in the process of shutting down its own social network, Google+. After several rumors of Google+ Photos becoming a completely standalone service, Google has made it official today during the annual I/O keynote. Many would argue that this move would essentially mean the end for Google+; but the truth is, Google+ is nowhere near to being shut down, the internet giant’s social network is on the verge of facing several major changes. But not everything that Google said about Google+ were bad news; Vice President of Photos and Streams, Bradley Horowitz, held a small press briefing where he announced that changes are indeed coming to Google+.
Bradley Horowitz, wanted the press to be certain that Google+ will not be abandoned or shut down in any way, and that the company will not only continue to work on Google+, but will deliver numerous improvements and brand new features into the social media platform. Horowitz also noted that the team behind Google+ is more than committed to bring “the same level of product diligence on Google+” as the team behind Photos. Which most likely means that new updates are soon coming to Google+ users.
After nearly four years of its release, Google+ has faced an enormous amount of improvements to both the user experience and interface. At first, the main goal of Google+ was believed to be a direct competition with facebook’s incredible dominance in social networking; but it soon became obvious that Google’s objective was to bring several of their own services together. Vic Gundotra was the man that led Google+ into what it is today, but after leaving its leading role inside the social network, rumors began surfacing of the probable demise of Google+. To which Sundar Pichai (Google’s Senior Vice President of Products), responded by stating the company new focus towards three main areas, including communications, Photos and the Google+ Stream. This new strategy became more apparent with the separation of Photos and the release of Google+ Collections, and in the course of the next weeks, new information might surface regarding Google+’s future. Currently, there is an incredible amount of users signing into Google+ every day, but it has been argued that this is due to other services like Gmail and Drive relying on your Google+ profile.