Google will be scaling back its integration of Google+ into other products in the wake of lead Google+ developer Vic Gundotra’s departure, according to reports from TechCrunch and Ars Technica. Specifically, creation of a Google+ profile will no longer be required to comment on YouTube videos.
The required YouTube/Google+ integration caused much rage amongst both existing YouTube commenters and the wider Internet when it was introduced last November, largely because Google+ requires the use of one’s real name—much to the chagrin of ornery YouTubers who preferred to remain pseudonymous. Of course, it didn’t help that most view Google+ as a digital graveyard.
Not all Google+ integration is going to be removed, however. “Gmail will continue to have it, but there may be some scaling back that keeps the ‘sign-on’ aspects without the heavy-handed pasting over of G+,” wrote TechCrunch’s Alexia Tsosis.
Update: A Google spokesperson clarified to the Daily Dot: “Today’s announcement has no impact on our Google+ strategy–we have an incredibly talented team that will continue to build great user experiences across Google+, Hangouts and Photos.”
Stop trying to make Google+ happen. It’s not going to happen. pic.twitter.com/O03IR0Y2yt
— Digital Spy (@digitalspy) November 7, 2013
It didn’t happen!
H/T TechCrunch | Photo by Yuri Samoilov Photo/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
