The Mercury News Weekend

Still using Google+? You won’t be after April 2

Tech giant sets final day for its social network

- By Rex Crum rcrum@ bayareanew­sgroup.com

Have you ever used Google+, the social network run by Google? Do you know anyone who has used Google+? Did you even know Google+ was a real thing while you were spending time posting photos of your latest awesome-looking dinner on Facebook?

Well, regardless of your knowledge of, or exposure to Google+, the long, slow end to the social network is nearly complete. After saying in December it would soon shut down Google+, late Wednesday, Google said Google+ will close up shop for personal accounts for good on April 2.

Anyone still using Google+ to create new pages, events and profiles should probably get to it if they want to have any presence on the social network over the next two months. Google said that people won’t be able to do such things starting Feb. 4. All consumer accounts and pages will be closed on April 2, and Google will then also delete all comments made by Google+ users from the service.

Ah, but all is not completely lost for Google+. If you work for a company that is a G Suite customer that uses Google+, well those such accounts will remain active. Google even said it would soon be rolling out a new look and new features for Google+ for G Suite.

Google+ never caught on as a popular social network to the degree of Facebook or Twitter. But, for Google, the decision to put an end to Google+ came last year, when it was disclosed that a data breach exposed the personal informatio­n of 52.5 million Google+ users.

As for why Google chose April 2 as the last day for Google+…Well, we’re going to assume that Google didn’t want to pull the plug on Google+ on April 1 for fear that whoever is left using it might think the company was pulling an April Fool’s Day joke on those last Google+ users.

 ?? GARY REYES — STAFF ARCHIVES ?? Google, helmed by CEO Sundar Pichai, is shutting down Google+, its social networking service.
GARY REYES — STAFF ARCHIVES Google, helmed by CEO Sundar Pichai, is shutting down Google+, its social networking service.

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