Google Abandons Mandatory Google+ Integration Across all of its Products, Starting with YouTube
Ever tried to leave a comment on a YouTube video, only to receive a prompt asking you to join Google+? Why on earth do I need to create a Google+ profile to leave a comment on YouTube? many have thundered. Overall, user engagement on Google+ has been relatively low, and Googles stipulation only led to the creation of numerous ghost profiles on Google+.
Fortunately, Google has now dropped this requirement. According to a blog post recently published on the Official Google Blog, users Google+ profiles will no longer be their identity across all of Googles products. People have told us that accessing all of their Google stuff with one account makes life a whole lot easier. But weve also heard that it doesnt make sense for your Google+ profile to be your identity in all the other Google products you use, stated Bradley Horowitz (@elatable)VP of Streams, Photos, and Sharingon the post.
Horowitz promised that in the coming months, a Google account will be all this is needed to share content, communicate with contacts, create a YouTube channel, and perform other tasks. Unlike public Google+ profiles, users Google accounts are neither searchable nor followable, making it ideal for those who dont want all their Google activities tied to one identity.
And for people who already created Google+ profiles but dont plan to use Google+ itself, well offer better options for managing and removing those public profiles, stated Horowitz.
Google is Revamping the Google+ Experience
In a related post on his Google+ page, Horowitz stated that this move would enable Google+ to focus on helping millions of users around the world connect around the interest they love. Google is planning to add new features, like Google+ Collections, to help users group posts they care about by topic.
Google would also move some features that arent essential to an interest-based social experience out of Google+. Horowitz hopes that this will lead to a more focused, more useful, more engaging Google+.
YouTube is Slowly Letting Go of Google+ Integrations
In a related post, the YouTube team announced some changes to Google+ integrations. Henceforth, the comments users make on YouTube will only appear on YouTube without being cross-posted to Google+ (and vice versa). This change was made effective on July 27th, 2015.
Moreover, over the coming weeks, the YouTube team stated that they will no longer require users to have a Google+ profile when they want to upload, comment, or create channels. If you want to remove your Google+ profile, youll be able to do this in the coming months, but do not do it now or youll delete your YouTube channel (no bueno).
For more information on YouTube channels and Google+, check out YouTubes Help Center.
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