Google revamps Google+, ends YouTube integration

Hard as it tried, Google could never make Google+ cool, no matter how many features it added. And now, it seems, the Mountain View-based giant has admitted defeat. In an official blog post, the company admitted that though it “got certain things right”, it made mistakes, that in hindsight, it needed to rethink.

Google+

Google is not completely putting an end to Google+ but instead morphing into other features and apps, stripping it of what makes it confusing and making it more focused.

“We’re going to continue focusing Google+ on helping users connect around the interest they love, and retire it as the mechanism by which people share and engage within other Google products,” says Bradley Horowitz, Google’s vice president of streams, photos, and sharing.

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The new impressive Google Photos app by Google is a result of this strategy. In line with this move, Google is going to move location sharing into Hangouts.

Google has already added Google+ Collections, where users can share and enjoy posts organised by the topics they care about. This feature has however not taken off and appears to offer nothing unique. Though Google appears set on sticking with Google+ Collections Horowitz makes it clear where Google stands with other Google+ feature it think are not working.

“Aspects of the product that don’t serve this agenda have been, or will be, retired” he says.

YouTube

Google+ and YouTube, like a couple from extreme opposite ends, never made much sense. Google realises this and has decided to break it apart. YouTube will no longer require a Google+ profile when users want to upload, comment, or create a channel. In the coming months, Google says, users will only need a Google Account.

YouTube will be one of the first Google products to make this change. Horowitz the confusion that has long existed with the Google+ and YouTube integration.

“This was a well-intentioned goal, but as realised it led to some product experiences that users sometimes found confusing,” Horowitz writes.

Read more: Google+ Collections: a new way to group your posts by topic

These changes will only happen in the coming months and not now. YouTube warns “do not do it now or you’ll delete your YouTube channel (no bueno)”

Horowitz says that these changes will allow Google+ to focus on what it does best “helping millions of users around the world connect around the interest they love”.

It is not known yet what Google will strip Google+ of but when it does as that appears to be the plan, Google+ will be left a lean product and what will be the point to it then.