I don't know how anyone could call G+ a success. It was supposed to be some kind of social network that people might want to join, it's now a social network that people are forced to join.

You can argue that it isn't really a social network, that it's really a central hub to integrate user access to services, which is really all that Facebook is to Facebook only Facebook has some value to it's users while G+ has no value to the vast majority of it's users. It doesn't become a success because Google has changed it's marketing definition, it isn't a success when people don't want it and even hate it.

I must hear the word Facebook a dozen times a day, I don't hear Google mentioned in a social media context once a month in person.

in the long run every part of Google is going to be connected together in this way, so your experience with all their products will be seamless, whether on mobile, the desktop or on the ISS.

Woopty fucking doo. I don't want to be forced into a seamless experience. I actually want different services to provide the service they are built for well, instead of providing a degraded product in service of an advertising platform. It might be good for Google but I see no sign that it's going to be in any way good for me.

Fortunately I can get most of the services that Google provides from someone else and as Google slowly degrades their product in an effort to rape my privacy I will increasingly be able to get a better product from someone else.

The last really comforting thing is taking a look back at tech companies of the past, their bones and hollowed out shells litter the landscape. Google's grasp for power by making user experiences shitty and it's no holds barred push to monetize our every moment will be it's downfall. It won't come crashing down but one application at a time people will chose not to go with the power hungry controlling monster. Google will cast itself into the bin of AOL, Yahoo, Microsoft and GeoCities. Or at least that is my prediction.

This shit isn't useful, in fact it reeks of nothing but dis-utility, I'm sick of saying no to changing my youtube name every time I log on and dodging G+ nonsense half the time I use any Google product. I've shifted by consumption away from thier ecosystem and I know others who are doing the same. Companies that start shirking their user base instead of growing face dark clouds ahead.