Google Plus Goes the Way of the Dinosaur

Google Plus has gone to the graveyard of failed social media sites, a reminder that money can't buy real friends.

Friendster, MySpace, Vine, and a host of social media sites have come and gone, leaving the next generation to reflect on the question: why did they die so young? After all, history should teach us all a lesson.

But successful social media is not really about friends, is it? For Google, the lesson is about survival of the fittest.

Google Minus

Stories about the death of Google Plus were not exaggerated. It officially died yesterday, but it was a long time coming.

Last year, the company said it would shutter the social media site after discovering a security flaw that may have exposed the personal data of 500,000 users. Their accounts are gone now.

Other social media survivors have been dancing on the mass grave. They tweeted: "Finally!" "Aloha!" "Sayonara!"

Actually, it was Twitter users who said:

• "G+ Was It Ever Really Alive?"
• "Google+ shutting down - Shocking"
• "Google+ had 500,000 users - Even more shocking"

Memes got in on the fun, too. Elmo simply gif-shrugged.

Unfortunately for Google Plus, the death march started 5 years ago when a key executive left. At the same time, team members went elsewhere. The Conversation questioned whether it was "the social network that never was?"

Elmo Gif-Shrugged

Eulogists say social media sites die because they don't keep up with their successes. Friendster, for example, slowed down as users joined. SixDegrees, the first social network site, which shut down four years after it started.

Social giants like Twitter and Facebook have survived, some say, because they learned three lessons:

• Successful social networks are original
• Successful networks scale
• Successful social networks evolve

Evolution is a great teacher because we all know what happened to the dinosaurs, right? Not enough friends.

Related Resources:

• Google's AI Council Already Has a Glitch (FindLaw's Technologist)
• You're About to Get Hacked, So Deal With It (FindLaw's Technologist)
• Is Tech Ready for Europe's New Copyright Laws? (FindLaw's Technologist)