Goodbye, Google+

Shockingly, people didn’t want to participate in a social network built by a company that harvests personal information for a living.

Amazingly, a product with MORE complexity, not less, wasn’t every really embraced by the general public (seriously?  who can keep track of what “circle” to post what in?)

Astonishingly, the die-hards (and you think Apple has a “cult”) are out attacking those of us who are giggling about this inevitable demise.

But unsurprisingly, Google is killing another product that didn’t offer enough usefulness to users to be an effective data collector.  And rightfully so.

Look, by no means am I the type to sit here and suggest that Google keep Google+ up and running. Even despite my personal laments at the loss of Google Reader, I understand that business is business.  And I’m not happy to dance on the grave of a failed product.  As someone who would LOVE a good alternative to Facebook, I have hopes that the social space isn’t too crowded for a good competitor.  But at a time when discussion about Google’s ambitions trouncing on people’s privacy, I do think reminding ourselves why Google+ flopped is important.  Google didn’t earn our trust with G+.  Too many ads, to many times when we “shared” things by accident.  To many opt-outs instead of opt-ins.  To much using our content to benefit them, not us.

So goodbye, Google+.  I’m not going to miss you, but I hope your spirit lives on to find a better implementation.