The under-used platform never came close to competing with Facebook as a social media to MySpace (which, interestingly enough, still survives, albeit known only when it inadvertently erases almost a decade of material). Google + became something of a joke as Facebook, then Twitter, then Instagram, then SnapChat rocketed in popularity.
source: searchengineland.com
No, for everything Google has done right, Google + faltered.
Since it's going away forever, though, a certain celebration seems in order. Google + might have been awkward and largely unknown, but it was not without its own virtues. Unlike Facebook or Twitter, you could participate in different degrees in a wide variety of online groups. Obviously, religion is one example. As this blog started in 2012, I found several, not just one, audiences on Google+. Many of the 2012-2015 posts appeared simultaneously on the "Catholic Blogs," "Roman Catholics," "Living the Catholic Faith," and occasionally "Theology of the Body" groups. The G+ Catholic Blogs even had a Twitter handle (no longer active). On any given day posts on these groups might range from the overly wordy and wonky like my own to mainstream/leaning conservative spirituality to frankly sympathetic sedevacantism or equally unapologetic left-wing beads-n-sandals Catholics. And those were just the Catholics. There were evangelical Protestants of all sorts, Hindus, Buddhists, progressive politics, and conservatives who revered Steve Bannon. Also, unlike the more popular platforms, it seemed easier to connect with earnest international Catholic participants. Google + seemed to be a gateway platform where many gained their sea legs before moving to the more popular ones.
Perhaps because so few comparatively used the platform, Google + was never monitored as Facebook and Twitter justifiably have been. At any rate, a certain diversity of voices existed among Catholic use of Google +, much like what exists on #CatholicTwitter today.
