Farewell Google+

My Google+ journey began on 9 July 2011 with my first post. I had received my invitation to join a few days earlier but had been busy with my sister's funeral and other necessities of offline life. I recognized the potential of G+ for being a home of long-form posts. I have always been a creator of content. I began in 2006 on a site called Newsvine writing mostly opinion pieces about the news of the day. As Newsvine declined (long story), I moved to Twitter, which was not the place for me to be. I don't express my thoughts in fewer than 140 characters, such as the limit was at the time. I don't think in tidy little snippets. I write long pieces.

Although I had a Facebook account, I hardly used it. I quickly determined Facebook was not the place for me to spend much time. Most of the people I followed there were high school classmates and family members and I just couldn't be myself with them. Well, I could be a version of myself, but I couldn't be my true self. I was content to check in with Facebook every month or two to see what was going on, but I could not and would not contribute original content to the site.

In Google+ I found a site based on following people for the ideas they expressed, not for how you knew them in the real world. It wasn't necessary to know someone in the real world in order to follow them based on the fact that they presented ideas I liked. It was possible to follow each other based on shared interests, not real world affiliations. It was possible to put people in circles and post content directly to them based on those circles. Google+ was never the Facebook-killer. It was the best Facebook alternative.

The writing was on the wall quite some time ago that Google no longer cared about Google+. Development had ground to a halt. Marketing had ground to a halt. Participation by brands slowed down. Google+ could have been a contender, but for various reasons, it checked out of the fight after the second round.

I will miss the community of G+ more than anything. I'm one of the few people who routinely hit the limit of following 5,000 people. On any given day I could see posts from people on a wide range of topics. In the course of my time on G+ I had amassed over 10,000 followers. On any given day I would have direct interaction with 50-100 people through comments on my posts. Over the years I've met several G+ users in the real world and had a great time with them. As G+ winds down over the next couple of months, we'll all scatter to the winds. There is no single platform everyone will be moving to and connections will certainly be lost. Many of us have dropped breadcrumbs so others can find us, but this isn't my first rodeo. I know I will lose contact with 90% of the people I follow and who follow me.

Google+ was a fun ride. It has lasted 8 years and about 43,000 posts for me. My new home will be here, on my blog. I can't promise daily posts, but I will post as often as possible on whatever seems worthy. If you see me around elsewhere (Facebook, Pluspora, MeWe, YouMe, and Twitter) say hi, but stop by the blog for original content.

It's been real.