Google to split Google Plus

Houston: Google is bidding adieu to Google Plus, an awkwardly named social network that the American search engine had launched four years ago hoping it would become a serious rival to Facebook. 

'Important changes' coming to Google+ in the months ahead will include users no longer needing an account at the social network to post videos or comments at YouTube. Google has spent the last several months chopping up Google Plus's most useful pieces and making them separate   services as it moves away from making Google Plus the central   hub for all Google-related activity. Yesterday, the company announced its most drastic step for  breaking up Google Plus.  

Google has announced more sweeping changes for Google Plus over the next few months as it restructures networkinto two distinctly separate products: streams and photos. Previously, many tasks within Google products (such as, say, commenting on a YouTube video) required a Google Plus   profile, but that won't be the case moving forward. "People have told us that accessing all of their Google stuff with one account makes life a whole lot easier," Bradley Horowitz, Google's vice president of photos and sharing, wrotein a company blog.  

Google now says that in the coming months, you'll only need to create a Google account to do things such as   creating a YouTube channel, communicating with contacts and   other key functionalities. Google also announced it's adding a new feature to the social network called Google Plus Collections, which lets users share and read posts sorted by existing topics like   sneakers, gluten-free recipes and Ireland or all-new user-generated topics.

Meanwhile, the social network's location sharing ability   will be moved over to Hangouts and other unspecified apps, "where it really belongs." "We think changes like these will lead to a more focused, more useful, more engaging Google Plus," Horowitz wrote. The changes also mark a symbolic end of Google Plus as a   social network meant to rival Facebook. 

Forcing Google users to sign up for a Google Plus account  in order to the use some of the company's other products and  services was a clear bid to generate interest in its social    network, but it backfired with many users. Google Plus claimed 300 million monthly active users in   late 2013, although Stone Temple Consulting, a third-party  digital marketing agency, pegged that figure at a far  lower 111 million?this past April. "For our part, the biggest issue with Google's social    network is that it just wasn't social enough the layout of the site wasn't as inviting or friendly as Facebook's  traditional layout has been and we still haven't seen any indication that Google really gets how the social web works,"  Google explained on its official blog