Reminder: Google+ Shuttering Soon! Are You Ready?

If you’re a Google+ user you should have already received notification that the service will be ending shortly. Listed below is the current expected timeline of events regarding the shuttering of the service and also some information on the use of Google+ within EverWeb.

Key Google+ End of Life Events
You are no longer able to create a Google+ profile, pages, communities or events as these features have now ceased. Google+ comments on your own or other sites, have also been removed from Blogger.

As of April 2nd, 2019, your Google+ account will be shut down. The result of this is that any pages you have created on your account will be deleted and any Google+ comments on all your sites will also be deleted. From this date forward, Google will start deleting all content from consumer Google+ accounts. You may still see content on Google+ as the content removal process will take a few months to complete. If you have a G Suite account, this will remain active and you will see a new look and new features coming in the near future for this service.

Google recommends that if you want to save data from Google+ that you do this before March 31st 2019.

What To Do If You Have a Google+ Account?
If you are a Google+ Community owner or moderator and want to keep the data you can download and save it.

If you log in to any sites or apps that use the Google+ Sign-in button, this will stop working within the next few weeks. In some instances the login button will be replaced by a Google Sign-in button instead. You can still log in using your Google account if a Google Sign-in button is available.

If you are have been active in the Google+ community, you probably have already scoped out alternatives to the platform and advised your Google+ followers to move to the alternative(s). If you haven’t done this, you now have limited time to do so.

Google+ and Your EverWeb Website
If you use Google+ in your EverWeb created website, now is probably a good time to remove any Google+ Social Media buttons from your site. There may be instances where you will need to inform your visitors of any alternatives to Google+ but this depends on your website’s reliance on the platform.

EverWeb itself still includes the Google+ widget, the Google+ button and links to Google+ in the Responsive Image Gallery widget. It’s obviously advisable not to include these in your website as they are already redundant and will surely be removed from EverWeb in the near future.