Google Plus Being Shut Down Next Year

Social media may be thriving right now, but that doesn't mean every site can keep up with it. And that's certainly the case with Google Plus, which will be closing up shop next year.

Per this blog post that went up earlier today, Google noted that it was providing a ten-month "sunsetting" period for the site, which also covered a push in security efforts, under the name of Project Strobe. As part of that, a bug in Google + was found that could have been a potential leak if it wasn't caught in time. Fortunately, it was.

Google then noted how the site wasn't really becoming a strong social destination, despite the fact that it could link up with other pages such as Gmail, Blogger and YouTube. In fact, usage is pretty minimal on the site, with "90 percent of Google + user sessions" being "less than five seconds." Yikes.

So the company felt that the site simply wasn't worth maintaining between its minimal traffic and its security threats, hence the ten-month period for users to migrate whatever data they need before it's taken offline in August 2019.

It said, "To give people a full opportunity to transition, we will implement this wind-down over a 10-month period, slated for completion by the end of next August. Over the coming months, we will provide consumers with additional information, including ways they can download and migrate their data."

But apparently Google + will live on in a different way, one aimed towards businesses. "At the same time, we have many enterprise customers who are finding great value in using Google+ within their companies. Our review showed that Google+ is better suited as an enterprise product where co-workers can engage in internal discussions on a secure corporate social network. Enterprise customers can set common access rules, and use central controls, for their entire organization. We've decided to focus on our enterprise efforts and will be launching new features purpose-built for businesses. We will share more information in the coming days."

While it is sad that Google + couldn't find the footing that the company was looking for, we know a few users that will be sad to see it go. Still, at the very least, you have time to enjoy it a little longer before it closes up shop.

You can read more technical details on the closure here.