Google has retired its social network Google+ eight years after it admitted that 90 per cent of its users had low usage and engagement and spent less than five seconds on the platform.

Consumer data exposed
However, an even more potent reason why the site is being shut down is that up to 52m users’ personal details were exposed to developers, due to a coding bug which is believed to be active from 2015 – 2018.

The social network, launched as a rival to Facebook and Twitter, allowed users to ‘Plus One’ friends’ posts and sort friends into circles but the site was criticised for its overall user experience.

The site also deleted business and brands pages in the months post-launch in 2011 but then changed their mind and brought The Muppets, Barcelona FC and Burberry as the first few businesses on board to Google +.

However, the aim to challenge Facebook and Twitter never came to fruition and Google’s fourth stab at a social network (Google+ superseded social network Google Buzz) proved in vain but not a complete failure. Google Photos and video comms platform Hangouts were spun out of Google+ and have been strong successes for the firm.

Google+ will remain as a part of the GSuite – which has 3m paying businesses as of January 2017 – as an internal comms network.