Made available for consumers’ use in 2011, Google Plus was immediately seen as Google’s failed attempt at taking on Facebook’s growing popularity
Google has decided to shut much of its Facebook rivaling social media network Google Plus, after user data was found left exposed to third parties. The search engine giant has said that approximately 500,000 users were affected by the data expose. A 1.23 per cent fall in Alphabet shares was recorded after the big announcement.
Ben Smith, Google’s vice-president of engineering, in a blog said, “We are shutting down Google+ for consumers. The consumer version of Google+ currently has low usage and engagement: 90 percent of Google+ user sessions are less than five seconds.”
Google’s explanation
Underlining the intensity of user data exposed through Google Plus, Ben Smith has referred to it as static and only limited to features including name, email address, occupation, gender and age on the same blog. Though the company’s statement has clarified that around 500,000 users were affected, it is not clear on the exact profiles that fall under that number.
The company also claims that none of Google’s developer were aware of the bug causing the expose. Ben Smith has also specifically mentioned, “We discovered and immediately patched this bug in March 2018. We believe it occurred after launch as a result of the API’s interaction with a subsequent Google+ code change.”
Google Plus journey
Made available for consumers’ use in 2011, Google Plus was immediately seen as Google’s failed attempt at taking on Facebook’s growing popularity. The engagement numbers on Google blog have also revealed that it was never a big thing amongst the users.
The way ahead
Google will be giving its social media users a 10-month window to transition from the network. Ways Google Plus users can download and migrate their data will be communicated over the coming months. However if the company claims are to be believed than Google will be focusing use of its social media network in enterprises and will be coming up with new, features purpose built network for businesses.
