Google starts removing resources assigned to G+ - arstechnica.com

[office politics]

it seemed silly to me for google to try to compete with fb and twitter.

Report: Google to end forced G+ integration, drastically cut division resources | Ars Technica

When Vic Gundotra, the head of Google+, suddenly announced his departure from Google today, many were left wondering "why" and what it meant for the future of Google+.

...

In short, Google seems to be backing away from the original Google+ strategy. The report states that Google+ will no longer be considered a product that competes with Facebook and Twitter, and that Google's mission to force Google+ into every product will end. With this downgrade in importance comes a downgrade in resources. TechCrunch claims that 1000-1200 employees—many of which formed the core of Google+—will be moved to other divisions.

 

[carnageX]

At least the employees are being moved to other divisions, rather than just being cut like most companies would most likely do.

 

[PP Mguire]

About damn time. I remember when I was so ****ed that my phone was automatically uploading pics to G+ without any consent. Then they did the G+ and Youtube integration which practically broke Youtube for a week or two. I'll live with Youtube being broke again to rid the internet of this site.

 

[carnageX]

About damn time. I remember when I was so ****ed that my phone was automatically uploading pics to G+ without any consent. Then they did the G+ and Youtube integration which practically broke Youtube for a week or two. I'll live with Youtube being broke again to rid the internet of this site.

Must have been when it was first released or something (I made a separate Gmail account for my phone that I don't give out to anybody, and I didn't have hooked up to any Google+ services); I have that option enabled now though, through a secondary Gmail account. They're automatically uploaded as private though - more of a cloud backup solution lol.

 

[PP Mguire]

Close to when it first came out, it wasn't private either. I didn't have any incriminating photos or anything but it just ****ed me off that literally everything I took was on G+ and it was public. I wouldn't have been nearly as ****ed off if it was default private like it is now. Just for something that invading to happen you need to have a popup or something giving you the option to opt out. That was strike #1 with G+ for me. The second has been the layout. Their layout and material sorting was always stupid to me. The third which technically would be second, take your pick, is the circle/hangout crap. I get the point, but seriously stupid to try and ease people into what I believe was advertised as an "easier" social experience with integration. BS. Add a damn friend and be done with it as the top priority. Allow organization later for people who are into that. They screwed it all up trying to be different. If they would have made a similar experience without being exactly the same (but easier to migrate to) then G+ would have been a winner for most everybody I know.

 

[Poizen22]

I do hope they keep much of the google+ integration in cellphones. Hangouts is a great competitor to imessage and BBM and having it nativly integrated into my htc one on 4.4 kit kat is great. Love having a video conference call with a few buddys when trying to make plans.

 

[iFargle]

Hangouts needs to fully integrate like iMessages does. If the person at the other end is on Hangouts, send through data, not SMS, and add their account to their contact, like iMessages. My favorite thing about iMessages was being able to go between my phone, iPad, and MBA pretty much seamlessly

Though I do agree... I really like a lot of G+ features. auto photo upload, hangouts to name a few. One thing Google needs to bring back is reader..... long live reader

 

[carnageX]

XKCD's comic from today:

 

[Reapt]

XKCD's comic from today:

I literally laughed more than I should have. That is funny as hell.

 

[carnageX]

I literally laughed more than I should have. That is funny as hell.

XKCD is great, lol.