| 1 | Google is saying that it's time for Google+ to be going, going ... though not completely gone. |
| 2 | The company announced Monday it will pull back Google+'s integration with Google products in an attempt to streamline the service, which has been panned by users who have been confused and annoyed at being forced into the network. |
| 3 | YouTube will be the first entity to split off. |
| 4 | In the coming months, YouTubers will be able to create channels, upload videos and post comments with regular Google accounts. |
| 5 | And beginning Monday, YouTube comments won't appear on Google+ or be linked to publicly searchable Google+ pages. |
| 6 | More uncoupling is on the way, said Bradley Horowitz, vice president of Streams, Photos, and Sharing. |
| 7 | FILE - In this April 17, 2007 file photo, exhibitors work on laptop computers in front of an illuminated Google logo at the industrial fair Hannover Messe in Hanover, Germany. |
| 8 | "It doesn't make sense for your Google+ profile to be your identity in all the other Google products you use," he wrote on Google's blog. |
| 9 | For example, Google+ Photos has recently been re-purposed into Google Photos. |
| 10 | Google+ launched in 2011 as a social network that allowed users to share links, photos and other media among "circles" of friends. |
| 11 | But it never came close to rivaling Facebook in popularity. |
| 12 | A recent study by Stone Temple Consulting claims to have found that 90 percent of Google+ profiles contain no content, suggesting that many people joined only in order to link with services such as YouTube. |
| 13 | A Google representative said the company doesn't share metrics on how many Google+ profiles exist. |