Google stops pushing Google+ accounts on Gmail users

Gmail users will no longer be required to sign up for a Google+ account, it has emerged

 

 

Google has quietly removed the requirement for new Gmail users to sign up for a Google+ account, in an apparent acknowledgment that some users find it intrusive.

Google+ is a social network which integrates with many of Google's online services, including Gmail, the +1 button, and YouTube comments. The service has over 300 million active users worldwide, according to Google.

However, some insiders have expressed scepticism about this number, claiming that a user does not even have to navigate to the Google+ website to count as ‘active’; they merely have to click the notifications icon in the top right hand side of the screen.

Since 2012, anyone signing up for a new Gmail account was required to sign up for a Google+ account at the same time. However, the company has now added a 'No thanks' button that allows users to opt out of the service.

"We updated the signup experience in early September," a Google spokesperson told The Telegraph. "Users can now create a public profile during signup, or later, if and when they share public content for the first time (like a restaurant review, YouTube video or Google+ post)."

The news follows the departure of Vic Gundotra, the Google executive in charge of the social network, in April this year. Google chief executive Larry Page noted at the time that the search giant would continue to invest in Google+.
However, unnamed sources at the company told Techcrunch that a massive reorganisation of the social network was underway, involving a re-classification of Google+ as a 'platform' rather than a 'product', and a number of staff changes.
In June, Google decoupled search results from Google+ author profiles, in an attempt to "clean up the visual design" of its service. The company admitted that displaying 'rich snippets' based on Google+ profiles "isn’t as useful to our users as we’d hoped".
Now, with the removal of mandatory Google+ profiles for Gmail users, it appears that Google is taking another step back from its social network, which was once pegged as a rival to Facebook and Twitter.