Google To Begin Making Google+ A More ‘Focused’ Social Network

When Google announced its intension to kill off Google+ Photos, it felt like the beginning to the ultimate demise of the social network. Today, we’re told otherwise. There are going to be significant changes going forward, but Google+ is going to remain.

The reason Google removed Google+ Photos from the service is because it just didn’t fit. To the company, it made more sense to give users an entirely independent service to manage their photos. I tend to agree. The same now applies to Hangouts, which Google is going to soon detach from Google+.

That’s going to become a trend. YouTube is another example; soon, people will be able to upload and use YouTube independent of their Google+ profile. It’s nice to see this change, but this should have been the design from the start. And there have been many vocal people to make that known.

With the removal of certain features and detachment of Google+ account requirements for Google-related services, Google+ is becoming a lot more focused on sharing content and engaging in shared interests. That doesn’t mean that new features will stop rolling out; Google+ Collections is a good example of a feature that helps G+ be focused, rather than all over the place.

Whether Google can pull off a more focused social network, we’ll have to wait and see. It doesn’t have the greatest track record with social networks, though, despite having been in the game for longer than most.