ByTedJanusz

ou may remember that back in June 2011, Google+ was launched as a "sociallayer" to enhance Google's online properties. But what is a social layer? DrewOlanoff of the Next Web explains, "Google+ is a series of tools that are being

layered into Google. The perfect illustration of this is the ability to see the recentplaces you've search for on your desktop machine, on your mobile device." As anotherexample, Google+ members who search on Google.com can get personal results thatinclude content from Google+.

WHAT HAPPENED TO GOOGLE+?

Maybe so. But many users thought the announcementof Google+ from the online behemoth would signal thedeath ofFacebook.

Two Plusses for PlusGoogle+ was developed rr"ith two unique features thatdifferentiate it from the no. 1 social networking site:circles and hangouts.

If you are like most people, you have famil),, friends,and people you know at work. There is probably con-tent that you share with one ofthese groups that youmight not necessarily want to share with the others.What may interest your mom may not be the same aswhat would be of interest to the people back at theoffice and vice versa. With Google+ you can createdistinct groups you can network with, called "circles."

Yet Casey Newton, senior reporter at The Vergeresponded, "It might look nice on a whiteboard, but inpractice the circles model is a nightmare. No one canremember who they put in which circle or which circleis supposed to see which stuff, and before you know it,the user has abandoned Google+ entirely for Facebook,because at least our friends are! there."

Rather than just texting or even using Skype to com-municate with another person, with Google+ you caninteract, using both audio and video, in what Google+refers to as a "hangout." There is no similar utility onFacebook.

Yet Amir Efrati of The Wall Street Journal says, "WhileGoogle+ has some original features including Hang-outs, which let people start a video conference withup to 10 people-anaiysts and some consumers say thedistinction isn't enough to lure Facebook members awayand persuade them to build a network ofcontacts fromscratch on Google+."

What Happened?In a word, usage. According to a comscore report, in

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January 2012, users spent 7.5 hours each on Facebook.On Google+, they spent just 3.3 minutes.

Could you imagine what might happen to Facebookif founder Mark Zuckerberg decided to leave the compa-ny? That isn't expected to happen anytime soon, but inApril 2014, Vic Gundotra, who aggressively 1ed Googleinto the social networking world with the creation ofGoogle+, parted ways with the company, leaving thestatus ofthe product uncertain.

Where to Now?"The company started too late and its product had thelook and feel of an also-ran, built by David Besbris, w-horeplaced Vic Gundotra as Google's head of social media,whistling past the graveyard won't do Google+ any favors.Its moment came and went, and the time to change isnow," says Newton.

"To be fair, there is indeed a Google+ community thatengages with content, drives traffic, and is passionateabout being on Google+. It's just not a top-of-mindcommuniryi' replies Danny Sullivan of MarketingLand.

"Google may have built a solid second-place rival toFacebook in terms of being a fuIl-featured social network,but that's like Bing being a solid search challenger toGoogle. It doesn't matter. People who are happy withGoogle don't shift to Bing; people who are happy withFacebook-and over a billion seem to be-don't shift toGoogle+," he continues.

In the future, we may see Google+ surviving as parts.

'As for Facebook's recent move toward breaking outsome standalone ser-vices as it's doing with Messen-ger, Google+ already has hangouts, which it has beenbeefing up with its Voice service and working to turninto a communications hub for Google users," says KiaKokalitcheva ofVentureBeat. "The fact that its iOS appis finally working and looking pretty good is also a signthat hangouts will be the mobile communications hubGoogle reallywants to push." O

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