When Google announced it was shutting down Google+ many, including myself, were deeply disappointed and even angry. It is easy to dismiss this.
"It's free, what do you expect?"
"No one was using it anyway, it'll never beat Facebook."
"It's just another Google failure, they dump stuff all the time."
Sure... But Google+ is actually a different case, from say Wave or Google Pages, or Picasa, for one critical reason:
Google lied about it.
Google said Google+ was strategic. Google said Google+ was Google. Google said Google+ was an identity engine. Google said Google+ was a central hub for controlling all your personal content within the Google ecosystem, and beyond.
If Google+ was these things, then Google+ was never really a Facebook competitor. It was... Something else. Something new. The Google+ website itself was just a bonus, something this new strategy lead to, but did not require.
Now of course this was the initial vision, but it is what Googe told us, so I went with it. I used Google+ the way they said it should be used. And it worked. It solved so many problems, while making so many things easy... It was near a perfect solution to several awkward problems of online presence and content. It had so much promise...
As we know, that vision did not last long, not more than a year. Apparently Google+ was pulled in different directions internally, we'll likely never know the story, but problems surfaced. Those problems, mistakes in how Google presented the tool (as a new login for example), and rough interface elements, are not my complaint though. My complaint is simply this:
Google continued to lie about Google+.
Eventually the big clues to what was really happening started to come during a series of "upgrades" that removed key Google+ features. It would be one thing if these were simply the dropping of the various "discovery" mechanisms Google tried, that didn't really prove useful. But the changes we saw were more. They cut at the core of what Google+ was about, or what they said it was about.
Just one example; the removal of a way to create posts, with a photo, that also acted as a link to an album of related photos. On the surface this seems to be just an artifact of separating out Google Photos as a new stand alone system. Now I really don't care if Google Photos is stand alone. This is really just a matter of branding and Google's internal management tree, to me. But this change was different. With this change, Google actually, willfully, did damage to the quality of Google+ content. Why would they do this? In hindsight we can think of few reasons, none of them good.
Things went downhill from there. Further deliberate functionality reduction, malfunctioning search, inconsistent interface changes, unchecked spam, wildly incorrect statistics and more. All the while Google was telling us that everything was fine. Eventually it was clear that there were no significant development teams behind the curtain. Google+ was in maintenance mode.
For myself, I still didn't care. If I was the only user, Google+ would still meet my personal needs for tracking my watch projects. Google+ can be viewed without a login, and the interface remained simple - if a user could scroll down, they could use that single link to my watch service content. But the writing was on the wall, even as Google persisted in saying there was a path into the future.
The reality is that Google began lying about Google+ and never stopped, right up to the end.
A bug was found in the authentication code, so Google will shut down Google+ months, almost a year, into the future.
In what strange world does that story even remotely make any sense? I hardly know where to start. So let's just call it another fiction and move on.
Over many, many years I have been a big boaster of Google tools both professionally and personally. I am personally responsible for bringing dozens, maybe even 100s of new users to Google+. Today I no longer encourage or recommend the Google platform. Enterprise users should be especially concerned and tread carefully. Shuttering Google+ is different from terminating other products in a troubling way.
In Google+ Google has proved itself to be an unreliable long term partner. Because Google lied to us.
Google also made a liar out of me. I told watch owners they would be able to find their photos and comments on Google+ with a search, indefinitely. I said this because Google specifically said this would be possible - that's what Google+ was for.
I am not one of those people that now delete all their Google accounts and switch to an iPhone. Many of Google's offerings, although they are becoming more fragmented, still work together and are useful to me. So far. But simply put, I can not believe what Google says. So for example, although my main website is hosted at Google Sites, I have for a while now had a complete copy - the same site - hosted at another free service. And I maintain them. Should Google pull that rug out from under me again, I'll just make the necessary DNS changes. And by the way:
There is no point in any sort of protest or complaining, and that's not the point of this post. If there is any doubt, consider that Google Take Out, which is supposed to allow us to get "our content" and, maybe, somehow, get it online someplace else, is hopelessly half-baked and under-featured for Google+. This problem is receiving no attention. And this just furthers my point, Google is not dependable in the long run. Especially if you are using Google services as part of a business, proceed, but proceed with caution. Do not put in stock in what Google says. Always have a plan B at the ready.
You can find my watch projects and other content here:
https://pluspora.com/people/982fc890ad7301364692005056268def
No comments:
Post a Comment