Search Engine Giant Overhauls Google+ To Take On Reddit

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Google was very hopeful of the success of Google+, but it has not lived up to its full potential. Despite that the tech giant based in the U.S. has not given up hope and rolled out a completely redesigned Google+ on Tuesday.

Communications and collections at focus

In a blog post, Google’s streams director, Eddie Kessler, said the redesigned Google+ platform will focus on Communities and Collections functions. Kessler said the shift in focus is based on the demands of users who make use of the platform. These two are the most engaging functions on the platform.

Communities allows users to join groups in which discussions regarding hobbies or passion areas take place, while Collections allows users to compile posts on areas of interest such as health and photography. Kessler added that Collections and Communities moves front and center with the new Google+ redesign.

How many actually use it?

Following the change, the platform will become more about shared hobbies rather than Facebook-like interactions with friends. Google+ was launched in 2011, and technically it has more than 2 billion users because anyone who creates an account on Google automatically gets a page on the social network.

In April, Stone Temple, a consulting agency, estimated that around 90% of its users never took to the platform to post anything. This was based on data taken from 516,000 accounts. The findings were then extrapolated to the 2.2 billion-strong user base, after which the consulting agency concluded that there were only 212 million active users on Google+. Facebook, in comparison, has more than 1 billion daily active users, according to the announcement it made in September.

Google takes on Reddit

With the redesigned Google+, it seems the company intends to compete with Reddit instead of trying to take on other social networking services. The new version of Google+ appears to be in beta.

Google has allowed users to opt into the new design on the web, and Kessler has promised users the changes over a period of months. It will be available in its complete form on both web and mobile platforms eventually. The company said it plans to release updated applications for Android and the iPhone in the coming days.

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