On The Life and Death of Google+

There's been a lot of talk lately about strategic changes at Google, and the "failure" of Google+.

http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/25/a-personal-reflection-on-google/

From where I am sitting, +Google+ is working just fine.  It does what it does, and it's useful to me.  Is this happening because it doesn't have a billion users yet or something?  Did they seriously think that would happen?  I just hope development doesn't halt, because I have nothing to replace this with.

I started a Facebook account and a Google+ account within days of the same time in July of 2011.  I posted the exact same content to both for close to a year.  I have lost track of how many new customers I have gained through Google+, it's well into double digits.  Through Facebook that count was, and remains to this day, zero.  I don't use Facebook at all anymore, and haven't for years.

I have met new people on Google+.  On Facebook people I went to grade school with came out of the woodwork.  And no one else.  I don't use Facebook.  It's a poor website, and more significantly, it does nothing for me.  Google+ has been completely different on the other hand.

Google+ can be great without being everywhere and everything to everyone.  It can generate valuable information for Google, and a valuable experience for it's users.  I don't know what's happening at Google, I suspect very few people do, but I hope there's no cause for alarm.