Google’s fourth attempt at a social media network, Google+, has today been axed. Trying to compete with the likes of Twitter and Facebook, Google launched Google+ in June 2011, however, straight from the get-go critics were predicting the demise of the platform.

According to Google, millions of users had signed up to the platform within the first few weeks, yet these signups weren’t engaging with the network. Despite a loyal fan base and integrating it into many other products including YouTube’s comment section, the network failed to achieve mainstream adoption.

After the discovery of a major data breach in 2018 which put millions of users’ data at risk, the company announced in December last year that it would shut down Google+ for consumers.

In a statement on its support page, the company cited “low usage and the challenges involved in maintaining a successful product that meets consumers’ expectations,” as reasons why it was shutting the service down.

Social media consultant, Matt Navarra said the doomed platform was destined to fail from day one.

“Issues with an unwieldy and changeable UI [user interface], being the latecomer versus giants like Facebook, a disjointed user experience, and rumours of internal disagreements about how Google+ would be leveraged,” he said impacted the platform negatively.

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In addition, it banned the use of pseudonyms or screen names forcing users to use their real names, often locking them out of other Google services such as Gmail. It also went after brands and businesses setting up profiles and deleting their pages, however, Google admitted this was a mistake and began allowing businesses to set up profiles.

On top of that, it wasn’t an easy platform to use and was often confusing compared to its competition. For example, instead of “likes”, “favourites”, or “upvotes” it had a branded “plus one” button.

In an effort to resuscitate the network, the company decided to integrate it with services such as Gmail, and in an even more disastrous move,  it merged Google+ with YouTube in 2013,  angering many users. App reviewers on the Google Play store were also obliged to have a Google+ account.

These mergers made the network appear to be a hub of activity, as YouTube comments, “liked videos” and app store reviews were automatically cross-posted across the platform. Google was then able to crow that its social media network had 500 million users.

BBC News technology correspondent, Rory Cellan-Jones, wrote in 2011: “I look at the profiles of the family and friends I invited to join and find that their presence in Google’s shiny new world ranges from sparse to non-existent.

“The big question is whether the 750 million people who currently use Facebook and the 100 million who are signed up to Twitter will decide they need to move – or need yet another social network in their lives.”

It was a series of events on-top of its unpopularity that eventually triggered the shutdown. In April 2014, Vic Gundotra, the founder of Google+ departed the company leading to a number of changes. Hangouts and Photos, the platform’s more successful features, were separated from Google+ and run as independent services.

Google’s popular apps such as YouTube and Google Play, were later disentangled from the platform, a popular move with app-makers and YouTubers. Its 2015 makeover, designed to focus on “communities” also failed to spark interest in the network.

However, the final death knell was sounded by the discovery of two software bugs in 2018 that meant the data of up to 52 million users had been accessible to third-party developers. In the wake of the security lapse the company admitted the platform’s low-usage.

“The consumer version of Google+ currently has low usage and engagement – 90% of Google+ user session are less than five seconds,” it said in a blog.

The service has now been added to Google Cemetery, a site dedicated to recording Google’s failed projects.