Google Will Shut Down Google+ Four Months Early After Second Data Leak (theverge.com) 53
Google+ has suffered another data leak, and Google has decided to shut down the consumer version of the social network four months earlier than it originally planned. From a report: Google+ will now close to consumers in April, rather than August. Additionally, API access to the network will shut down within the next 90 days. According to Google, the new vulnerability impacted 52.5 million users, who could have had profile information like their name, email address, occupation, and age exposed to developers, even if their account was set to private. Apps could also access profile data that had been shared with a specific user, but was not shared publicly.
Google+ still exists? (Score:2)
Now I'm wondering if this will affect Google Hangouts, Google Drive, and other such amenities...?
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Now I'm wondering if this will affect Google Hangouts, Google Drive, and other such amenities...?
I thought hangouts (the free version, anyway) was already going away. No? Always another tombstone i the Google Graveyard.
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Ah, it's the desktop app that's going away, to be replaced by a Chrome extension.
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Google Buzz, Google Wave. I remember those from reading about em on Slashdot when they were first launched by Google. They were both social networking "Facebook killers", if I recall correctly.
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Google Wave was a technology proof of concept. It never advertised as a ' killer'.
If you are using Google products, you are almost certainly using the very cool tech developed by the Google Wave team.
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I wouldn't be impacted if those disappeared yesterday.
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I'd rather blame whoever was on Google+ team. Can you imagine the repercussions if Gmail (or Google Drive) was ever compromised? It's one thing to consent to algorithmic scanning of messages for advertising purposes; it's quite another to have potentially personal and confidential correspondences and documents exposed to malicious actors.
Doing what Google is best at (Score:5, Insightful)
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I'd also add that they're the masters of half-assed implementations. They very often bring something out that's not even beta level in terms of functionality, get bombarded with requests for new features that should have been there on day one, and then take fucking forever to implement even a few of the requests.
No one should be surprised that Google+ is going away. It never came close to achieving the market penetration they wanted, and was always this weird thing over on the side among social media site
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But Agile(TM) and MVP and DevOps! Surely there's no need to actually make something work. Surely all our users are Agile app appers who app apps and understand that the MVP comes first and as long
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I haven't tried the other Google stuff, but Google+ seems a much better product than Facebook by far. If you grade it by market penetration then you're right that it's not a successful product, but if you grade by quality then it should be winning.
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Absolutely. It's easily the best social network available in my opinion, despite Google's own many attempts to sabotage it. Or at least it was the best at the time they had Events and Hangouts integrated, but before they forced Youtube users onto it.
It was a magical place, I met a lot of great people there. It launched many small indie creators and small businesses, connecting them with their fans in the way you would want it to work. Communities sprung up where people really cared about each other.
I'm sad
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Google GREATLY encourages "launches" - releasing something publicly. And keep in mind - no penalties if the shit is half baked, not working, only works on chrome, or some such nonsense! This is the norm! Why? Promotion. You cannot get promoted beyond a certain level in this place unless you "launch" something big. So what do you get when you add of all these perverse incentives? Nine thousand, eight hundred, and eighty-three chat apps, and a never-ending chain of redesigns and relaunches so some people can get promoted.
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No one should be surprised that Google+ is going away. It never came close to achieving the market penetration they wanted, and was always this weird thing over on the side among social media sites.
It was never a Facebook killer, but in the eyes of many, it was the best social network available for quite some time. Google has been neglecting it, though, and now it's increasingly getting overrun with spam. They've always been eager to kill popular features (Events + Hangouts was a magical combination on G+). They tried to force people on it to boost their numbers, degrading the signal to noise ratio. They were unable to appreciate it for the great interest-based social network that it was.
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"Another possibility is useless managers (an oxymoron?)"
You may not know the definition of "oxymoron".
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Inconceivable!
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It indeed is an oxymoron. If Dilbert cartoons ever taught us anything, it's that no company functions without managers.
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Reader, Google+, Inbox, Hangouts. Some people suspect Blogger might be next.
Google used to be a place I looked for cool products to use, but it seems they don't really care about that kind of brand recognition anymore. I'm seriously considering running my own social network cloud stuff, so I don't have to rely on the benevolence of profit-driven megacorporations, or the survival of startups. Open source has always promised to put me in control, and maybe that's worth more in the long run than the convenienc
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Re:One sign in - all services? (Score:5, Insightful)
The article said Google+ has been hacked not the Single Sign-in feature.
If someone is going to hack a system, they will rarely ever do it by breaking the login screen, as their are often security holes around it that are for a good hacker, easier then trying to break the most front facing feature.
I expect the real issue with Google+ is Google just stopped caring for it years ago, and just let stuff rot.
"data leak" (Score:2)
Why even wait that long? (Score:1)
Seriously, what is the case for leaving this open until April instead of just shutting it down now, at least external access?
It's funny, I remember a lot of people in the photo community being really into Google+ when it first launched. It seemed pretty clear to me it was not going to make it though.
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Why are they waiting that long? Because they are idiots, that's why.
The first time they tried to shutter Google+, it took Youtube down for 2 hours.
Turns out vital features in Youtube were linked with G+.
They still are, now, as a bunch of pages in Youtube simply do not work.
Youtube are hardly the smartest bunch around. In fact, they are some of the most incompetent.
Never mind the fact they integrated core components of Youtube with G+, their shitty "AI" can reflag videos that were human vetted as being per
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That's because Google killed Picasa to force photos over to Google+.
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Seriously, what is the case for leaving this open until April instead of just shutting it down now, at least external access?
There are a lot of people still using it. They're exploring options on where to move next and trying out other places, but Google+ has become their home. I like that Google announces the closing of Google+ well in advance.
It's funny, I remember a lot of people in the photo community being really into Google+ when it first launched. It seemed pretty clear to me it was not going to make it though.
It could easily have made it if Google had handled it better. It was the best social network for a while, but Google kept sabotaging it, and seemed to have goals that didn't align with what Google+ was.
Vic Gundotra - Shit Midas (Score:4, Interesting)
I have no idea how this clown got hired by Google and then been put in charge of trying to create a social network. Everything he touches is shit or is turned into shit.
One just has to watch this living and breathing manifestation of failure to see that he is the exact opposite of someone you want creating a social network.
Shutting Down Early (Score:3)
So there was a silver lining to Google+ getting hacked again?
What? Me worry? (Score:2)
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It's that thing they announced one time, but didn't let you join, thus killing the service early.
Sad to see it go... (Score:2)
I've been in the habit of cross-posting stuff to FB and G+. I don't think this "breach" would have affected me, as my profile [google.com] is already public. I also have a ham license, and at least one domain without "privacy" service on the WHOIS data, and listed my real home address as my registered address last time I ran for office, and use my real name as my Wikipedia handle, with my birth year listed on my user page.
There's probably a way to subscribe to some of the stuff I was following on G+ by direct push, or
Slashdot and Google (Score:1)
2020 - Google buys Slashdot
2021 - Slashdot is integrated with Gmail and Youtube
2024 - Google announced that they will shut down Slashdot within 4 months
Lame (Score:2)
Google can't kill Facebook (Score:2)
Undead vampires get stronger the older they become.