Google today said some changes are on the way for its Google+ social network.
To start, people will no longer be required to create Google+ accounts to access all of Google. People will be able to maintain separate Google+ and Google profiles, though some information will be shared between them.
YouTube will be the first product that separates Google+ profiles from Google accounts. Google also said it wants to make finding content in Google+ easier, and new features, such as Google+ Collections, allow people to do that. Collections let users organize posts by topic.
Similarly, Google believes removing Google+ Photos from Google+ helps to streamline the core Google+ offering. Moreover, functions such as location sharing will be moved to Google Hangouts.
“We think changes like these will lead to a more focused, more useful, more engaging Google+,” said Google. “As always, your underlying Google Account won’t be searchable or followable, unlike public Google+ profiles.
And for people who already created Google+ profiles but don’t plan to use Google+ itself, we’ll offer better options for managing and removing those public profiles.” Google said the changes will roll out slowly over the next few months.
