By: PDP BLOGMASTER
Google announced that it would be shutting down Google+, their social network, after a security vulnerability was discovered. While this vulnerability was fixed in March, knowledge of the issue was not known to the public until October of the same year. Google did not inform users that this happened because no one’s user information was taken. Google is under scrutiny because they did not inform users. Congress has questioned why Google did not release information about vulnerability earlier and wants more information. Google believes that the work and resources to maintain Google+ is not worth it, which is why they are shutting it down. The original shut down was scheduled for August of 2019; however, a second leak happened in November and was open for 6 days. This caused Google to move the planned shutdown up to April of 2019. Additionally, all Google+ APIs will shut down on March 7th.
Google+, which was announced in 2011, was aimed to challenge Facebook. Instead it has been in the shadows of Facebook, and other social networking platforms. Google+ did not catch on, and eventually found a niche group of users. Google stated that 90 percent of user’s interaction with Google+ was less than 5 seconds long.