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I tried to record a video because I thought it would be easier and quicker than writing a post. I wound up getting too emotional (read: ticked off) so I’m back to writing as I can temper my opinions here a bit more.

Google Plus On FireThere was an announcement that the head of Google+ Vic Gundotra is leaving Google effective immediately. The Internet has since commenced setting themselves on fire. Of course they are. Let me ponder setting myself on fire here as well…

Being that I’m a fan of the platform and somewhat of a power user – as well as some other items listed below – I, in the spirit of everyone on the Internet having an equally passionate and irrelevant opinion, wanted to talk about a few things:

  1. Congratulations Vic for all your work with Google and Google+. Enjoy whatever comes next for you. Enjoy your family. Enjoy your future. Thank you.
  2. Thank you to the entire past, present, and future Google+ team. I realize it wasn’t just Vic pushing all the buttons and typing code behind the scenes.
  3. I still find immense professional and personal benefits from the tool and the community there. So thank you to everyone I’ve met in Google+.

Next, let me address some of the crazy (CRAZY) stuff I’ve been pulled into over the last 16 hours:

  1. I have gotten 14 Skypes from people thinking Google+ has ALREADY SHUT DOWN. No, my Internet is just spotty (Comcast is on that for me – thanks).
  2. I have gotten 2 (edit: 13) messages from people wondering what I’m going to do with my company Purple Stripe since Google+ is “imminently” shutting down. Well, golly, I’ve been a tech professional since 1989 and in digital marketing since 1997. I guess my entire livelihood is based on one tool and experience set?
  3. I’ve gotten a handful of requests on how to quickly export all a company/brand’s work because Google+ is shutting down over the weekend (!!!) and they need all their data. For the record, that tool is Google Takeout, and you are welcome to export and delete all your content.
  4. ONE person (a high ranking person) leaves a company and you think a major project is going to get scrapped overnight?

And some last general commentary on the concern trolls wearing tin foil hats…

  1. “Journalists” under popular mastheads spout off without references or sources do not make facts. They spew opinions on products they have not used and make money from trashing by increasing their page views. Amanda Blain has a great open letter to Google+ haters that addresses this phenomenon and she is well worth a read. Also: Amanda is like the 20th most followed person in the world on the platform and knows a thing about how to best use the tool and platform. I trust HER opinion from in the trenches more so than a writer for hire paid (most likely) based on page views.
  2. Maybe Google is shuffling deck chairs, maybe they are just being smart and taking talent from social (Google+) and putting it into mobile (Android) and multimedia (YouTube and Photos). Maybe they are just a global monster of a company and need to rearrange and evolve. Google has always, in my opinion, shipped MVPs (minimum viable products) – they have the money and resources to do so. See what works, what sticks, what the public wants, where the backlash is, where corrections and pivots need to be applied… In the end, they are an enormous global company that needs to evolve or die. Yet when they do things we don’t understand, we accuse them of not following OUR plan.
  3. Find me a journalist that is well entrenched in Google+ (or any other platform they write about) and lives in the tools and community and let THEM write about the (speculated) future of Google and Google+. If you don’t actively use the product you have zero right to trash or condemn the platform. Well, of course you are allowed to have an opinion, but don’t form your uneducated opinion to influence people for the sake of sensationalism. And page views.
  4. Maybe Google+ is shutting down Monday and firing everyone. Maybe they listened to all the concerned journalists that cried about ghost towns and the walking dead. Maybe they listened to you whine about how the tool is too hard, you can’t dump links and receive an onslaught of traffic, or how you aren’t comfortable on video. Or maybe they are doing whatever the hell they have on their roadmap (twisty as it is). Speculation does no one any good.

I’m begging, stop being stupid people.

A video would be easier. I have so much to say on this. In the end, Google+ will be around in some form (probably evolved), I still will be in business (and evolved myself, as I have been doing professionally for 28 years), and YOU will still have a job to get done.