Tag: google+

Google To Initiate Deleting Google+ Photos and Pages, Starting April 2

Google made an announcement regarding its decision to shut down Google+ in the latter part of 2018. We all saw it coming, and so did Google, because they are about to start removing the majority of content from Google Plus. That’s what their blog and their support page says.

Reason For Shutdown

This shut-down was initiated because they were unable to tackle challenges involved in maintaining a successful product, according to Google. As per source, 90 percent of user sessions on Google+ don’t even last five seconds. Also, last year, Google shut down Google Plus for consumers after an audit turned up with the discovery of an exploit. In the above-mentioned links, Google laid out their exit strategy for Google+. The process will be slow, but all for the greater good.

Timeline For The Shutdown

Starting February, you will not be able to create a new Google+ profile, pages or any community. Once this happens, Google will start removing all Google+ accounts, along with all other information. This will include photos, videos and any form of content that has been uploaded to Google Plus in the past. The deletion will start on April 2, but as Google estimates, it will take a lot of time.

How Do Existing Users Improvise?

Also Read : Google I/O 2019 Dates And Venue Announced

Meanwhile, Google is providing detailed instructions to all its users regarding the Google+ Self-Service portal. The users can back up their data as per their requirement. All the pictures will be backed up in Google Photos. The Google Plus sign-in buttons will be removed from the Blogger pages. They may be replaced by Google Sign-in buttons. In addition to this, Google will br shutting down all of it’s Google Plus APIs. This is a bell for the developers so that they may move to alternatives, if they’re using any of these APIs. Hopefully, such a change is only for the better, so that Google may hint at a new take on Social Media yet again. Who knows?

January 31, 2019
No Decision To Shutdown Hangouts, Says Google Representative

Just a few days back, a lot of technology websites reported that google had planned to shut down their messaging app- Hangouts. However, according to the Product Lead of G Suit, Hangouts will not be shut down. Well, it won’t exactly be shut down, but the company plans to migrate the users to Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet. The company representative also clarified a few more aspects using tweets. They said that while Hangouts classic will be shut down, it does not imply the end of support for messaging provided by the app.

https://t.co/QgYfj03ADn

Hey @hallstephenj, I run Hangouts and this is pretty shoddy reporting. No decisions made about when Hangouts will be shut down. Hangouts users will be upgraded to Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet. Your source is severely misinformed. You can do better.

— Scott Johnston (@happyinwater) December 1, 2018

Also Read: Google’s New Smartwatch Patent To Use Your Skin As A Touchpad

Google’s Future Plans

Google Hangouts is a communication platform that includes instant messaging, video chat and VOIP services. It is interesting to note that Hangouts itself was born from separate entities. These include Google Talk, Google+ Messenger (formerly: Huddle), and Hangouts, a video chat system present within Google+. The Google representative also commented that migration to Chat and Meet should be automatic. He also said that it should be invisible to the end user. Hangouts is not shutting down per se. But, it is going to disappear in a while, after all its users are successfully migrated. Google has previously also started and abandoned other apps and services such as Allo, Inbox and Reader.

Other companies are known to create a single app for instant messaging and video chat. They have then worked on it to improve it over the years, instead of shutting them down to create a new platform. We will have to see how the company handles the huge amounts of users that currently use Hangouts. Competition has been high from Facebook Messenger which is built on top of the most popular social media platform, Facebook. WhatApp also has a huge user base, owing to its first mover’s advantage in the messaging industry.

December 3, 2018
Google To Shut Down Google+ After Data Breach

Alphabet, the company that owns Google is shutting down its social networking website. Google+ has reportedly exposed user data of 500,000 customers to external developers. This comes after an announcement of a bug breach that was reportedly in their system for more than two years.

This bug could access Profile fields that were shared with the user. This includes Profile fields that are not public.

The data is limited to static, optional Google+ Profile fields including name, email address, occupation, gender and age. It does not include any other data the user may have posted or connected to the website or any other service, like Google+ posts, messages, Google account data, phone numbers or G Suite content.

They reportedly discovered and immediately patched this bug in March 2018. Google also said that they believe it occurred after launch as a result of the API’s interaction with a subsequent Google+ code change. The company also acknowledged in their blog that one of the reasons for shutting down the Google+ is that it “has not achieved broad consumer or developer adoption.

To provide for a smooth transition for the existing users, they will wind- down over a 10 month period.

[blockquote right=”pull-right”]Google will wind- down over

a 10 month period, closing

its curtains in August 2018[/blockquote]
This means the Google+ site will close curtains next August. According to Google they have no evidence that any developer was aware of this bug. They have also assured that no one has abused the API. In Google’s finding there is no evidence that any Profile data misuse occurred.

The company has offered reassurance that whenever there is a user data breach, they go beyond their legal requirements and apply several criteria focused on their users in determining whether to provide notice. When it comes to Gmail, they are updating its User Data Policy for the consumer version. This will protect the user by limiting apps from accessing user data. There has been a lack of interest and the gradual decline of social media overall in the recent times. It is also noteworthy that just 10 days ago, Facebook reported a data breach of 50 Million users.

It seems that this was a good decision on the company’s part. Let us know what you think in the comments below!

October 9, 2018
Google Reinvents Google+ With Focus On Collections and Communities

Google’s attempt at creating a social networking website sort of died down after the launch of Google+. It did not seem to get the attention it was looking for and seemed dormant for the longest time. However, Bradley Horowitz, the VP of Photos and Streams at Google and Luke Wroblewski, Product Director at Google; seemed to have re-worked and re-designed the app.

Some features like the Photos and backing up on YouTube have been highlighted. the main purpose was not to remove or eliminate features but to highlight the features that worked for Google+ and streamline the ones that didn’t.

“Photos wasn’t the only product with opportunity. We asked ourselves “how can we make this better and serve more people?” said Bradley Horowitz

A lot of work seems to have been done in researching user needs, designing and archiving data to revamp Google+. The result of this is the new G+ with a focus on Communities and Collection. While, Communities was launched in 2012 in order to reduce the need for discussion groups; Collections is rather recent Pinterest-type feature, that was introduced only earlier this year.

However, after going on a road trip in order to survey the needs and difficulties of hard core Google+ users, the designers have come to the conclusion that these were the two main features that required to be highlighted. Their main aim was to make their pros stand out, and try their best to hide the cons while working on them.

The new version also caters to a mobile first experience which was previously not one of the top most priorities for Google+. Therefore, the web design has been made much more responsive, and along with that, the iOS app has been fully rebuilt and redesigned. The Android version on the other hand will now cater to what people are using while pushing aside the unused features. Moreover, the new G+ runs on Material Design, which is a language developed by Android itself.

The new design is being compared to Facebook or other social networking site’s layouts. However, that is not entirely a bad thing, although it does look like they are still relying on their user base to fill their home pages with more interesting things. Google will now fill up your homepage with things that it thinks you are interested in, based on the content you surf and share.

One of the main realizations that they had was the fact that Google+ had too many features that were all over the place. So as Horowitz says they had to reinvent within the current framework. So, to conclude we can safely say that Google has focused on what worked for them by enhancing the presence of ad-friendly groups, adding a streaming focused feature, and reaching out to their users via the web, iOS and Android.

November 18, 2015
Huawei Nexus Passes GeekBench With Snapdragon 810 and 3 GB RAM

In an earlier post we had mentioned that Google is planning to launch two new Nexus phones on the 29th of September – LG Nexus 5X and Huawei Nexus. New leaks have been found ahead of the Google event that reveal a few key specs of the Huawei Nexus. The phone codenamed ‘Huawei Angler’ was found to have passed through the GeekBench benchmark software.

As the image shows, the Huawei Nexus will sport the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chipset, with 3 GB of RAM, and will run on Android 6.0 Marshmallow. The new OS will debut along with the Nexus smartphones on the 29th.

Other rumours that have surfaced on the Huawei Nexus in the past suggest that the phone will either have a 5.5 or 5.7 inch screen, with either 1080p or QHD display. The phone is also rumoured to have a USB Type-C port and a fingerprint scanner. We’ll have to wait for the 29th to see how many of these rumors are true. Follow this space for more on the Google event.

September 15, 2015
Google Photos to Replace Google+ Photos Starting 1st August

In a bid to connect with their audience and to up their usage, Google has finally decided that it will be shutting down Google+ photos and making way for Google Photos by August 1st.

This announcement sounds like good news for two reasons. Firstly, Google Photos will provide unlimited storage and will automatically sort out your photos in various categories and timelines. Secondly, anything that is free is always worth it. Google will provide unlimited storage, organise your folders and allow you to edit, share and save all your photos for free.

Google announced that they will begin the shutdown process with Android phones, then iOS and the Web thereafter. The Plus now has prompts asking people to switch to Google Photos and download it before the 1st of August. Doing this, will be of great convenience as Plus will soon stop working and one will have to access their photos from Google Takeout. The company ensures that all your photos and videos will still be saved and available after you switch to the new, stand-alone Google Photos app. So download soon, it can only benefit you.

July 21, 2015