Google+
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]
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Type of site |
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|---|---|
| Available in | Multilingual |
| Predecessor(s) |
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| Successor(s) | Google Hangouts (2013–present) |
| Owner | |
| Created by |
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| URL | Archived official website at the Wayback Machine (archive index) |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Required; no longer available |
| Users | 111 milliona (2015) |
| Launched | April 28, 2008[1] |
| Current status | Closed on April 2, 2019 |
| Written in | Java, JavaScript[2] |
| |
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
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
- "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]
