Google Removes the Google+ Requirement from Its Services - http://clapway.com/2015/07/28/google-removes-the-google-requirement-from-its-services-277/

Google has announced its plans to further separate its sinking ship of a social media platform, Google+, from its other services.

Crushed Dreams

When Google launched Google+ back in June 2011, it was touted as another mythical Facebook-killer. The platform was exclusive and users needed to be invited in order to use the service. Even with the gate, Google managed to accumulate 20 million unique visitors to the site within the first three months of its launch.

Unfortunately for Google, Google+ just didn’t pick up the steam it needed in order to close the massive gap Facebook had on it. In an official blog post, Google mentioned that users weren’t really fond of using Google as their social “identity” when using Google’s services, though they did like the convenience of using one account to log into the services.

Moving Away from Google+

So, with that in mind, Google has decided to let users create, share, communicate, create a YouTube channel and more with just a normal Google Account. The first step involves separating YouTube comments from Google+ posts. This is a welcomed change since YouTube comments have a way of diluting legitimate discussion due to the fast-paced nature of the commenting system and its incoherent formatting.

Google+ Will Find Life After Death

Bradley Horowitz, VP of streams, photos, and sharing, has stated that Google won’t be giving up on Google+, however.

“We’re going to continue focusing Google+ on helping users connect around the interest they love, and retire it as the mechanism by which people share and engage within other Google products,” said Horowitz.

The idea is to shift the focus of Google+. Rather than trying to use it as a platform to encompass all of Google’s services, it will simply exist as a way for others to connect through what they love. With this in mind, Google+ will still be launching its newest feature, Google+ collections. This feature introduces a new way for users to group their posts by topic.

Every collection will be focused on a specific topic, allowing users to have a streamlined way of organizing their interests.

With Google+ Photos recently canned and now Google+ being separated from all of Google’s other services, it will be interesting to see what other changes Google will be announcing in the future.

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Google Removes the Google+ Requirement from Its Services

#Interstitial #ads begone. - http://clapway.com/2015/07/27/google-scraps-interstitial-ads-after-recent-study-547/

Like an answered prayer, Google has decided to do away with interstitial ads on mobile devices.

What are Interstitial Ads?

The name given to these interstitial ads isn’t exactly descriptive if you don’t already know what they’re referring to. These are the ads that occupy the space between your mobile browser and the website you’re trying to view. A popular one, for instance, appears while trying to visit almost any forum. A user will likely be shown an ad saying something along the lines of, “Hey, you can view this forum via Tapatalk. Click here to download.”

Google Breaks Down the Statistics

In a new study done by Google, the company found out that these ads were just shy of being completely useless. In fact, so many people ignored these ads that Google decided to ditch the ad format completely.

Google used Google+ as the front end page for the study. When users would visit the site, they would be welcomed by an interstitial ad. From the study, only 9 percent of the users actually clicked on the ad, though that doesn’t mean they downloaded the app. That’s a pretty small number, but a staggering 69 percent of the users high-tailed it off the page entirely. A 9 percent click-through rate (CTR) actually isn’t that bad, but having so many users simply abandon the site altogether is pretty alarming.

When Google removed the interstitial ad they noticed that website activity had increased almost 17 percent while app downloads remained relatively stagnant.

“Based on these results, we decided to permanently retire the interstitial,” said Google+ software engineer David Morell.

Making Changes for the Better

A difficult part of Google’s job is maintaining harmony between the audience and the advertisers. Ads aren’t bad, but users want to see ads relevant to their interest and that they consider valuable, whereas advertisers want a good return on investment (ROI). After seeing the numbers, it was clear to Google that neither party was benefitting from the ad format.

Google will be publishing its findings in hopes that others will take a second look at using interstitials on their platforms.

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Google Scraps Interstitial Ads After Recent Study