Google+ is finally longer be a requirement to do anything Google-related on the web.
Every Google user was forced to give Google+ a try, with it being integrated into YouTube, Gmail, and many forms of content sharing. That is no longer the case.
The company said in a blog post that people will soon use their general Google accounts to access everything, and seemingly admitting that the requirement to use Google+ for most things was a mistake.
"While we got certain things right, we made a few choices that, in hindsight, we've needed to rethink," said Bradley Horowitz, Chief of Google Plus.
This is a big change from the company's view on things in 2013, when they began requiring users to have a Google+ account to do almost anything Google-related.
The beginning of the end for Google+ integration came in May, when Google announced that they would be splitting Photos from Google+ into a separate app called Google Photos.
With most user's favorite feature being separated, many questions were raised about the future of the social network. However, Horowitz stressed that the network was not dying, but would be changing.
"Google+ is quickly becoming a place where people engage around their shared interests, with the content and people who inspire them," Horovitz said in his blog post. "In line with that focus, we’re continuing to add new features like Google+ Collections, where you can share and enjoy posts organized by the topics you care about. At the same time, we’ll also move some features that aren’t essential to an interest-based social experience out of Google+."
While the company claims that Google+ is doing well and not dying, only time will tell if the company will survive much longer through these changes.
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Jack Griffin is a writer for the VAVEL USA Technology section. Follow him on Twitter at @jacksonlgriffin.
