Google has been trying to compete in the Social Media marketplace for some years now. Their latest effort, Google+ was an attempt to take on Twitter and Facebook, however it looks to be going the same way as previous flops (Orkut, Dodgeball, Jaiku, Wave and Buzz).
Google+ was launched in 2011, with little fanfare. Since then we’ve seen various people try it, but nobody really give it much attention. The only popular use we’ve seen is for improving your search engine optimisation results, the theory being use Google+ and your website rankings will improve. Google is increasingly using signals from Twitter and other social media sites now to help with rankings, so using Google+ isn’t important (if anyone actually managed to prove any benefits anyway).
Google also tried linking it up to YouTube which was widely disliked and Google+ has since been rather picked appart (Hangouts being spun out into a stand-alone service, for example).
So despite it’s limited use, Google has just given it a revamp. The updated site will focus on “collections” and “communities” – making it more an interest-network than a personal one. So rather than friends linking up and communicating, the idea seems to be that people with similar interests come together and share their thoughts. Google also claim the new site is simpler, more mobile friendly and rebuilt for web, Android and iOS.
For more information please see Google’s blog pages: