If you were still holding out hope that Google would change its mind and keep its Google+ network for public consumption, well that dream has officially died now. Google+ is no longer available now for consumer and brand accounts. They’ve supposedly given us ample time to back up and delete data from the accounts so no one should be surprised now that it’s officially gone. It still lives on to some extent for business and enterprise users as it is being repositioned as a work tool. But for all intents and purposes, the Google+ that we came to know and not really liked is gone.
Originally, the plan was to sunset the social network by August 2019. But due to a security lapse that possibly exposed user data due to Google+ APIs accelerated the shutdown and so it was moved to April 2019. While there was actually one petition to keep it around longer, there was no turning back for Google anymore. The version that they’re keeping for enterprise users is intended for closed group collaboration, using its communication services to let you keep in touch with workmates.
If you still haven’t backed up all your data, there is still hope as they are still currently in the process of deleting content which will probably take some time, in fact, a few months to complete. And so you can use Google’s data export system if you still haven’t done that even as Google+ is already officially closed.
If you didn’t delete your data after making a copy, then it will probably be found in the Internet Archive where the digital museum/library will be keeping some records in case future generations would like to see what people were doing and saying , of course,. However, only public posts have been crawled and archived and if you deleted all your data then of course you won’t see it in the Wayback Machine.
So, for the last time (maybe), we say goodbye to the consumer version of Google+. You never really got into most of our hearts, but it’s still sad all the same to say goodbye to something that may have been a part of our digital lives.
VIA: SlashGear
