Google+ was Google’s supposed answer to social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, but safe to say that even after all these years, the platform does not have the same traction as the former two. So what does this mean for the service? While its future is uncertain, in the meantime it has been noticed that Google has started to remove Google+ account links.
The removal appears to have affected Gmail and search results. If you want to access your Google+ account via any of Google’s pages, you can click the grid icon to the top right corner of your screen to bring up the Google apps and select it from there. It is unclear why Google has removed account links, but it seems to be part of a process to separate itself from the social networking platform.
In fact during Google I/O, the company announced their new Google Photos service which used to be tied in with Google+ Photos, but with the new service it looks like Photos will be a standalone product which we suppose could actually be a more attractive option for users who don’t really want/need Google+ to begin with.
This does not mean that Google+ will be shutdown. In fact when asked by VentureBeat on the future of Google+, the company’s SVP Sundar Pichai replied by saying, “We are working on it. … You will hear more about it later this year.” So until then we guess we’ll just have to remain patient.