Google+ is dead. Thanks to data breach

The social network that offered so much but proved that nothing will ever catch Facebook is to close due to a data breach. Now if only the same could happen to Facebook itself. Google+ shutting down after data exposed

 

Was it meant to be a social network?!

I mostly encountered it as a peripheral irritant. I had no idea it was meant to join up in some coherent (let alone social) way.

 

Originally yes. And you created ‘circles’ based on how well you knew said people and what you wanted to be visible to each circle.

The general jist was probably to be a Facebook and LinkedIn killer. Problem now is with internet companies once the people have flocked somewhere it’s difficult to dislodge them, and anyone that thinks of something cool and new, just gets purchased by the main player anyway.

We seem to just accept something is shit and carry on using it because it’s where all our friends already are, or because they can sell us everything we need/listen/watch

 

Also interesting to read google have known about this since March and in typical google fashion. Can’t be arsed to fix it so shut it down.

 

Great
Hated it.

 

Never bothered
Not that I've bothered much with fb

 

Could get them in trouble with the GDPR, you are supposed to notify your data protection authority within 72 hours of learning of a data breach.

 

I loved Google+, it was great. Nobody used it though and it was a bit buggy especially in its later years when I think Google gave up on it. It had so much potential but as others have pointed out, Facebook had cornered the market.

 

Initially the article says "up to 500,000 users had been affected." and then later says no one was affected ..

 

Such a waste of my time jumping on the bandwagon back when it launched. Like ping or whatever the iTunes one was that flopped.

 

I wonder how they managed to expose 500k users' data. Each Google employee must have had six accounts.

 

Never used it and they obviously didn’t push it right as I kind of glanced at it when it appeared and didn’t understand its purpose. Were they trying to improve the ways in which people keep in contact by email? Total mystery. I think I received a few things from mates who were on it but I still didn’t understand the point of it.

 

Does that mean that the annoying button on the bottom right that I occasionally hit by accident will disappear? As annoying as this is I only ever accidentally hit the one on right (as I scroll with my right thumb) and this will increase the chance of me accidentally posting on a social network that I actually belong to. Can we leave it there as a safety feature?

 

I remember saying at the time, that for anything to compete with Facebook, people’s elderly parents will have to feel like they want to move.

Fb has achieved critical mass.

 

I have used it a lot (still do) it's a pity it didn't take off .

 

Google benefitted from an exodus of hotmail users over to their service (or that’s how it felt for me) in the early to mid noughties. I’ve stuck with that, but as MySpace gave way to Facebook they missed the boat on the social media front. I rarely even use email nowadays; only really if I need to send files but Dropbox fills that provision anyway.

 

The kids don’t use it (afaict, the cut off seems to be around age 30), but it’s still the biggest social network for kids ppl over that age. And fb own Instagram, don’t they?

 

Afaict tell kids use it - or are perhaps on it and don’t use it as much as other things but they’re on there as I see children of friends tagged on it.
Plus activists I know in their late teens / twenties are on there - as are their friends.

 

Guess we'd better archive this for posterity

Reinforces my conviction that it's crazy to base anything very important on an 'offering' from Google.

 

First Orkut, then Buzz, and now Google+

You'd have thought the folks who dominate search would have the ability to look up research on what makes a successful social site...

 

Does that explain why most of the people who like my pictures/posts on it are Russian...?

Oh and cat pics - makes the cat thread here look positively slow!

And very few spammers/scammers IME. Second only to here.

 

Remember the hype when it first launched?

I do, because I just checked my G+ page from 2011 and found a bunch of embarrassing memes and gifs from the time.

 

Everyone's is joking and laughing saying that it doesn't effect anyone as no one uses it. But the reality is if you have a Google account you probably have a Google plus account.

 

This is the big news here, mistakes get made and no one is immune to breaches. As they go this one seems fairly minor, however Google's actions in covering this up is a huge deal that reflects badly on the whole organisation. One which many people (myself included) trust with huge amounts of personal data. I'm well over the honeymoon period with google but this has given me another good reason to reconsider my google reliance.

True in a way, I don't think anything will become 'the new facebook', however facebook is slowing down and those on there are sharing less of their lives. So overtime facebook will become less relevant and we'll find new ways of interacting on the web (for me whatsapp groups aren't directly comparable to facebook but have taken over in the function of sharing stuff with family and close friends, of course I get it facebook owned)

 

Stopped using it after it kept auto logging me in all that time... fucking shite

 

OMG! Just checked... MySpace is still there!

Why?