Google+

social networking service

Google+ was a social networking website owned and operated by Google. Google+ was opened to people with an invitation on April 28, 2008 for testing.[4] The next day the July 3, 2015, people with accounts were allowed to invite friends to the service. This was stopped within a day after there was "insane demand" for accounts.[5]

Google+
Type of site
Available inMultilingual
Predecessor(s)
Successor(s)Google Hangouts (2013–present)
OwnerGoogle
Created by
URLArchived official website at the Wayback Machine (archive index)
CommercialYes
RegistrationRequired; no longer available
Users111 milliona (2015)
LaunchedApril 28, 2008; 16 years ago (2008-04-28)[1]
Current statusClosed on April 2, 2019
Written inJava, JavaScript[2]
  • a Active users[3]

Google+ is made to work with different Google social services such as Google Profiles and Google Buzz. It also has features including Circles, Hangouts, Sparks and Huddles.[6] It has been said that this is Google's biggest attempt to rival the social network Facebook.[7]

On October 8, 2018, Google said they were going to shut down Google+ by the end of August 2019. This is because a software bug in Google+ let people see the data of hundreds of thousands of users.[8][9] They later moved the shut down date to April 2, 2019 after discovering yet another bug.[10]

Growth

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On 14 July 2011, Google said that Google+ had 10 million users two weeks after it was opened to people with invitations.[11] After three weeks, Google+ had 20 million users.[12] The Google+ iPhone app was the most popular free application in the Apple App Store less than a day after it was added to the store.[13]

Features

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  • "Circles" lets users to organize contacts into groups for sharing.[14]
  • "Messaging" lets people communicate with their circles using Android, iPhone, and SMS devices.[14]
  • "Hangouts" are places used to have a group video chat within a circle.[14]
  • "Instant Upload" lets people with Android smartphones upload and store photos or video in a private album for sharing later.[14]
  • "Sparks" uses Google Search to let users find topics they might like to share with others.[14]
  • "Streams" lets users see updates from those in their circles. This is similar to a news feed.[14]
  • "Ripples" is a visualization tool that allows users to play back public shares and conversations.[15]

References

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  1. "Introducing the Google+ project: Real-life sharing, rethought for the web". Official Google Blog.
  2. Joseph Smarr (2011). "I'm a technical lead on the Google+ team. Ask me anything". Archived from the original on August 12, 2012. Retrieved August 17, 2011.
  3. Denning, Steve (April 23, 2015). "Has Google+ Really Died?". Forbes. Archived from the original on April 28, 2015. Retrieved April 3, 2019.
  4. "Facebook's Newest Challenger: Google Plus". Retrieved 1 July 2011.
  5. Shaer, Matthew (30 June 2011). "Looking for a Google+ invite? Either get comfortable - or get crafty". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 1 July 2011.
  6. "Official Google+ Website". Retrieved 1 July 2011.
  7. Cain Miller, Claire (28 June 2011). "Another Try by Google to Take On Facebook". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
  8. MacMillan, Douglas; McMillan, Robert (Oct 8, 2018). "Google Exposed User Data, Feared Repercussions of Disclosing to Public". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved October 8, 2018.
  9. Smith, Ben (October 8, 2018). "Project Strobe: Protecting your data, improving our third-party APIs, and sunsetting consumer Google+". Google. Retrieved October 8, 2018.
  10. Snider, Mike. "Google sets April 2 closing date for Google+, download your photos and content before then". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2020-03-11.
  11. Goldman, David (14 July 2011). "Google+ grows to 10 million users". CNNMoney. Cable News Network. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
  12. Musil, Steven (21 July 2011). "Google+ hits 20 million mark in three weeks". cnet News. CBS. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
  13. Tsotsis, Alexia (20 July 2011). "Google+ Now The Top Free App In The Apple App Store". TechCrunch. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
  14. 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 14.5 M.G. Siegler (28 June 2011). "Google+ Project: It's Social, It's Bold, It's Fun, And It Looks Good — Now For The Hard Part". TechCrunch. Retrieved 1 July 2011.
  15. Vic Gundotra (27 October 2011). "Google+: Popular posts, eye-catching analytics, photo fun and..." Google. Retrieved 30 October 2011.

Other websites

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