Google is toning down the integration of its social network with other services such as YouTube, allowing them to function independently.
This means that from now on, posting a comment on YouTube, for instance, will appear only on YouTube, not on your Google+ account as well. Google+ comments on the other hand won't appear on YouTube. Simply put, Google is loosening the ties between its Google+ social network and other services it offers, as well as no longer requiring to log into sites such as YouTube using their Google+ credentials.
Ever since it launched its social network back in 2011, Google has pushed to integrate Google+ with its other services, aiming to unify users' identities across Google services. When Google started requiring users to have a Google+ account to comment on YouTube, however, it stirred a firestorm of criticism and negative reactions from Internet users. This was back in 2013, and Google is finally making amends.
The company is now changing its ways and will allow users to log in to YouTube with a simple Google account, not Google+. YouTube is one of the first services to adopt this new strategy, severing its mandatory Google+ ties, but the change will roll out in the following months. The change to make YouTube comments appear only on YouTube, meanwhile, is applicable immediately.
"In the coming weeks, YouTube will no longer require a Google+ profile when you want to upload, comment, or create a channel," Google explains on the official YouTube blog.
"If you're happy with everything as it is now, then just keep on keepin' on. If you want to remove your Google+ profile, you'll be able to do this in the coming months, but do not do it now or you'll delete your YouTube channel (no bueno)."
This change also means that people will no longer need to have the same username on YouTube as they do on Google+, which was something users have repeatedly requested. At the same time, it could also spell the beginning of the end for Google's social network, as a significant amount of users had a Google+ account mostly for YouTube.
Google+ never really took off the way the company likely hoped it would, and it never saw the success of competing networks such as Facebook and others. Google's move to sever ties between Google+ and other services could indicate that the company is finally realizing that it can't force its social network on users.
