As of March 7, 2019 G+ will cease to exist!
As of now Google GSuite is becoming the business software of choice.
“On March 7, 2019, all Google+ APIs will be shut down. This will be a progressive shutdown beginning in late January, with calls to these APIs starting to intermittently fail as early as January 28, 2019.” Google GSuite is the new focus.
If you’re using a social media management platform for your social media (such as Hootsuite), they will not be supporting Google + pages after the 28th.
Hootsuite recently sent out a note saying that they will end support for Google+ users after January 28th and that all Google+ accounts will be removed completely from the platform on February 28, 2019.
What does this mean for you?
In my personal opinion, I don’t think it means much but I do recommend logging into your social media management software and removing any G+ accounts.
If your website uses any G+ integrations such as plugins, they will stop working so it might be a good idea to simply update your website and remove any such plugins.
Starting March 30th, Google will be shutting down support for their URL shortener and replacing it with Firebase Dynamic Links (FDL). FDLs are smart URLs that allow you to send existing and potential users to any location within an iOS, Android or web app. All existing links that have used the google link shortener will continue to redirect to the intended destination.
Google continues to change, update and try to make their services relevant and helpful to the end user – this is a good thing, but can be hard to keep up with.
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Have you tried Google GSuite yet?
You probably have but you haven’t realized what it’s called. Google GSuite is a brand of cloud computing, productivity and collaboration tools, software and products developed by Google.
When you log in to your gmail, you have access to GSuite in the upper right corner.
You can connect using
- gmail
- calendars
- hangouts
You can store files, images and even video
You can create pretty much anything for a project, including:
- documents
- spreadsheets (see our example below)
- forms
- slideshows
You can set viewing permissions and all sorts of fun stuff to organize your business. In fact, Google is now promoting GSuite as the small business solution and I can attest to that because we use almost everything on a daily business.
The GSuite tools are becoming more widely used and allow anyone to access anything privately or publicly. They are so useful in a world where sharing is becoming more and more prevalent.
Have a closer look at the GSuite products at https://gsuite.google.com.
G+ was disappointing, and that’s why it dissolved in 2015. Click here to see our original story in 2014.