In December 2018, we announced our decision to shut down Google+ for consumers in April 2019 due to low usage and the challenges involved in maintaining a successful product that meets consumers’ expectations. We want to thank you for being part of Google+ and would like to provide the next steps, including how to download your photos and other content.

On 2 April, your Google+ account and any Google+ pages that you’ve created will be shut down and we will begin deleting content from consumer Google+ accounts. Photos and videos from Google+ in your album archive and on your Google+ pages will also be deleted. You can download and save your content. Just make sure that you do this before April Fools day. Yada yada, yaya  ……………………………………………………………………………………..

From all of us on the Google+ team, thank you for making Google+ such a special place. We’re grateful for the talented group of artists, community builders and thought leaders who made Google+ their home. It would not have been the same without your passion and dedication. Yada Yahhhhh.

Google since its emergence in the 1990’s has heretofore had a vaunted record for innovation in JavaScript, search engine results, large scale computing and Social Systems like Youtube. But over the past decade the number of fumbles in technology by Google have mounted up:

1. Google Glass – despite all the social hype stumbled in 2015, but has been revived in new demise in 2017;
2. Google Buzz – 2010 predecessor to Google+ was displaced due to privacy and security concerns;
3. Google Notebook – launched in 2006 and dropped in 2012 as a personal note-taker then replaced by Keep for mobiles;
4. Google Helpouts – a live stream help service debuted in 2013 and died in 2015;
5. Google Site Search and Appliance  – will no longer be sold as services to customer sites as of Spring 2017;
6. Google Moderator – was a web user monitoring service discontinued in 2010s;
7. Google Bump and Flock – were mobile apps abruptly discontinued in 2015 with users having 30 days to save data;
8. Google Reader and Current – 2013 Reader was terminated and recently Currents replaced by Google Play Newsstand;
9. Google BufferBox – parcel storage service was bought in 2012 and closed in 2014;
10. Google Schemer – was bought  and closed in 2014, ask Alphabet for the details;
11. Google Wave – was announced 2009 as a Java based communication system and retired n 2010 as an Apache project;
12. Google Picasa – desktop app was discontinued in 2016, Mac and PC users should switch to the superior Photoscape X;
13. Google Picnik – an online photo editor bought in 2010 and shuttered in 2012; use the best online graphic editor Pixlr;
14. iGoogle – single page website service, started in 2005 and shutdown in 2013;
15. Google Talk and Hangouts – Talks P2P communications merged into Hangouts in 2013 which will merge into GSuite in 2020;
16. Google Health – personal health databank  closed in 2011 and last chance to recover data in 2013;
17. Google Knol – Wikipedia competitor shuttered in 2012;
18. Google Aardvark – social conversation service acquired in 2010 and closed in 2011;
19. Google Sidewiki – a browser sidebar widget shuttered in 2011;
20. Google Dictionary – was shutdown in 2011;
21. Google SearchWiki – allowed users to annotate search results, discontinued in 2010;
22. Google Dodgeball – a mobile social networking service closed in 2009;
23. Google Jaiku – Twitter-like app closed in 2009;

Both individual consumers and businesses have been caught out by often sudden change in direction by Google. Now some would argue this reflects the inevitable risks associated with capital investment in a tempestuous technical market. However, there are three clear trends among the shutdowns.

First,  the days of free or bargain services for consumers are waning. Every project has to be self-sustaining and the direction is towards corporate G Suite and Maps like freemium products and services. And any consumer product that a)does not capture a monopoly share or b)does not provide secondary marketing info-dollar streams or c)incurs potential security or privacy liabilities or costs – these services or products will be disposed of and/or shuttered.

Second,  only corporates with G Suite contracts will be spared the  abrupt shutdown of a Google+. But even corporates cannot avoid sudden change in major markets such  as when Google surrendered its large-scale computing advantage to Amazon Web Services over the past 5 years. So substantial changes in pricing and services offered is the nature of the very disruptive technical computing market – just ask any corporate mainframe user.

Third, even developers who sell to Google or any of the large FAMIG players may find their product shutdown unexpectedly. So developers as well as corporates who are investing  among the FAMIG-FaceBook_Amazon_Microsoft_IBM_Goolge with an eye towards solid disruptive marketing vision – may in fact be imperiled. Right now the winner at $1.6 Trillion in stock value is Amazon. Given its innovation fumbles and whiffs, can Google afford  these recurrent mistakes? Read this assessment of Google’s current status and then how future technology is shaping up – and reach your own conclusion.