Google is shutting down its free consumer version of Google+ social networking platform according to Ben Smith, Google Fellow and Vice President of Engineering
Well if so (the Google+ team has been quiet about it today), after Google Reader was shut down, it would be quite clear that Google is not committed to making something work through thick and thin. Luckily I’ve already replicated most of my posts elsewhere but imagine if I had not? I’d have lost all the content that I had worked years on. Yes, I’m sure we can download it but how do you use it elsewhere? What Google does not seem to get is that its users spend a lot of time they invest in their services and content creation… You lose the goodwill of your users who made you what you are.
It makes me realise I should probably also start insuring myself against Gmail being shut down one day. If you want to be sure you keep your content the best way is to probably run it yourself and not rely on any “free” online service. And now there is no ways I would recommend my employer using a paid G+ service – I’d push for a self-hosted onsite collaboration platform that we can keep going if no other companies exist on Earth…
We do know nothing is permanent in the world of corporate sponsored services – it lasts as long as they see profit and don’t get bought out by someone else.
If G+ goes off the air, you can still follow me at:
– Mastodon at https://mastodon.social/web/accounts/danie10
– Find my searchable posts on my blog at https://gadgeteer.co.za/blog
– Friendica at https://squeet.me/profile/danie10
– Or just follow my RSS feed at https://gadgeteer.co.za/rss.xml.
Rest assured, I’ll still be around ad-free through thick and thin. You may just not find me on Gmail though in future and I won’t be going back to Facebook that is for sure 😉
See https://www.blog.google/technology/safety-security/project-strobe/
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Project Strobe: Protecting your data, improving our third-party APIs, and sunsetting consumer Google+ Findings and actions from Project Strobe—a root-and-branch review of third-party developer access to Google account and Android device data and of our philosophy around apps’ data access. |