Google Plus to be 'Sunsetted'??

After years of rumors and suspicions of a looming end, Google announced today that the consumer version of Google + will close in the next ten months.... In a blog post referencing a review that began in March and highlighted the "significant challenges in creating and maintaining a successful Google+ that meets consumers’ expectations. Given these challenges and the very low usage of the consumer version of Google+, we decided to sunset the consumer version of Google+...." The post goes on to explain that Google does intend to "give people a full opportunity to transition, we will implement this wind-down over a 10-month period, slated for completion by the end of next August. Over the coming months, we will provide consumers with additional information, including ways they can download and migrate their data.

At the same time, we have many enterprise customers who are finding great value in using Google+ within their companies. Our review showed that Google+ is better suited as an enterprise product where co-workers can engage in internal discussions on a secure corporate social network. Enterprise customers can set common access rules, and use central controls, for their entire organization. We’ve decided to focus on our enterprise efforts and will be launching new features purpose-built for businesses. We will share more information in the coming days...."

I was an invited user of Google + near its very beginning and have loved the platform over its lifetime, although this news saddens me a little personally it also excites me to know that Google is doubling down on their development of Google + as a corporate social networking tool. I will keep you posted as more develops, the blog post can be read here:
https://www.blog.google/technology/safety-security/project-strobe/