Google is reassessing its social strategy, and continues to separate Google+ from other Google services.
The tech giant has already moved Google Photos out of Google+, and has now announced plans to decouple YouTube from the service. By using Google+ profiles across all Google services, the idea was to give users a single identity, writes Frederic Lardinois for TechCrunch.
Google implements new strategy for YouTube
However that strategy was not popular with users, and Google VP of Streams, Photos and Sharing Bradley Horowitz has admitted that the company is now moving away from integration with Google+.
“People have told us that accessing all of their Google stuff with one account makes life a whole lot easier,” he wrote in a blog post. “But we’ve also heard that it doesn’t make sense for your Google+ profile to be your identity in all the other Google products you use.”
In 2013, users who wanted to leave comments on YouTube had to log in via Google+, a move which was designed to reduce trolling. YouTube users were not impressed, and Google is now set to change the rules once again.
Within a few months, YouTube users will no longer need a Google+ account to share videos, leave comments or use the site in any other way. Those who previously linked their Google+ account to YouTube will soon be able to remove their profiles.
Google+ on its way out?
Horowitz also mentioned that other features will be removed from Google+ in the future. The social network will not be completely killed off; instead it will become “a place where people engage around their shared interests, with the content and people who inspire them.”
As a result, features such as Google+ Collections will be emphasized, and location-sharing will be limited to tools like Hangouts.
Alexia Tsotsis and Matthew Panzarino wrote last year that Google+ has been “walking dead” since the departure of Vic Gundotra from the company. Not only was Photos moved away from Google+, other features such as Google+ sharing and links to the service in its toolbar were also removed.
Horowitz has not dealt the final blow to Google+, instead claiming that the move will make the service more focused. However it is becoming more apparent that Google+ is slowly dying.