Google Plus was launched in June 2011 with the major goal in mind to compete with Facebook. Now, on Oct 8, 2018, Google has just made a shocking announcement that they are going to shut it down.
Google has decided to shut down Google+ after exposing the data of 500,000 users. Google said that they had discovered a data breach. They have discovered a bug in the API for Google+ which makes third-party developers work easy to access data of 500,000 users.
Not now, but Google discovered that bug in March 2018. However, Google did not disclose this bug to users cause it was not confirmed which users were impacted.
It doesn’t mean that it’s going to be shut down tomorrow. Google said that it will shut down Google Plus by the end of August 2019. Which means they will take 9-10 months before shutting it down. They want to give their users a chance to migrate their information.
Google+ consumer’s version was also not very popular among users. They said 90 percent of Google+ sessions are less than 5 seconds. This means lots of users are using Google+ as a digital marketing tool to get quality backlinks and for other marketing SEO strategies.
Not so many users are enjoying it personally. Users find no reason to stay engaged with this social media platform.
What Does This Change Mean for Marketers?
It’s a lesson for all those online marketers who rely on one or two social platforms. Not depending on a single platform is a smart idea. No one can predict what the future holds even Google’s power was not enough to save this social platform.
Lots of small and big companies are using Google+ to boost their SEO ranks. Now they will have to move to another platform.
If you want to keep your data secure and check your data you can visit Google’s takeout. You can also download and migrate your Google+ data here.
Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.
