You can definitely see them going away from their "pro-developer" "pro-functionality" "design and user friendliness is a secondary" mindset though. I've been following Android releases since the first version in 2007, and it's probably what inspired me to pursue computer science. In all versions before.. 4.0 I think, whenever you clicked on a link that is a media of a different app, say a YouTube link in a Reddit app, it would say "Choose which app to open with" or so, but ever since 4.0+, the process is way oversimplified, with features gone.
Google + was amazing the first two weeks i was in the Top 100 followed users then all the big populor celebritie blogggers turned up and swamped it. Then Google decided to add a Whats Hot which basically killed what was anamazing first two weeks. It drove all the users to already popular people, instead of promoting the lesser known users. I thought it was entirly unfair and unjustified there were many of us that felt we had contributed and were over seen by the google idiots who backed people who ended up leaving and or slagging Google+ off. Google wasnt content with letting Google+ grow naturaly and i feel that has let it down somewhat.
I use it to follow a few personalities, and an old school RPG community. I think the community posts are some of the most interesting stuff, but it feels much more like a subscription platform than something that you interact with on a personal level. It's like a big Twitter.
I logged in for the first time in a while to find that there were a ton of advertisement posts in my feed. I don't have too many people in my circles, so my feed was mostly advertisements. It was really dumb. I also accidentally initiated a hangout request with someone I didn't know. Hanguphanguphanguphanguphangup!!! Big thumb on a small phone screen and all that...
In thinking about it, it seems that I currently use G+ more as a "tool" than a "place".