For the second (or maybe third?) time this year, Google is overhauling its fledgling social network. Or whatever you want to call Google+. Me, I call it a zombie. This thing just won’t die.
The press release humbly reminds you of this fact in the first line: “If you head over to Google+ today, you’ll see that things look a little different.” That should read: “Please head over to Google+ today for the first time since it launched…” Because honestly, who even knew Google+ still existed?!
All jokes aside, Google+ does have some users, and those users will hopefully enjoy this little upgrade. If you’re one of them and you do head over to Google+ today, you might notice a new emphasis on Communities and Collections. Launched in 2012, Communities has endured as the most popular Google+ feature, though its hard to measure popularity if you’re taking a survey of an empty room. Collections launched earlier this year, and it’s since resembled the bastard child of a convoluted Reddit and a less beautiful Pinterest. But somebody must like it.
Nevertheless, the new Google+ is focused on these group-friendly features. The end goal, Google says, is to “solve real needs and make life easier for people.” This is a Google-wide philosophy that makes good sense when you consider some very smart people under the Mountain View company’s huge umbrella are trying to cure cancer and building self-driving cars. At some point you have to wonder why Google can’t stop trying to create its own Facebook clone.
Instead, the tattered carcass that is Google+ rises up from the dead on a semi-annual basis reminding us of its sad existence. You can try to forget that it’s there, stretching out its undead arms, hoping to grab your attention. Google will undoubtedly try to point the zombie in another new direction after this one doesn’t work out.
But Google+ won’t die. It can’t.
[Google]
Image via Shutterstock / Google / Michael Hession