It’s an admission of defeat, I suppose. Even the giants know when to cut their losses, let someone else own the field, and move on to other arenas where they can be successful.

No, I am not talking about myself, although this does impact me in a minor way. It impacts some few of you, too, perhaps, though it would seem to be very few of you, which is why this is happening.

On April 2nd, Google is shutting down their competitor to Facebook, Twitter, and the like, aka Google+. You may have noticed — you may still notice for now — the little G+ icon at the bottom of most posts and pages on this site, either under “Share this” or “Let’s get social.” Depending which one you press, it either made it easier to share my content on your own Google+ page, or to link directly to mine. That icon sat next to similar ones for Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr, which are not going away anytime soon (well, I’m undecided about Tumblr; more on that in a moment).

To date, anytime I’ve posted something here, I have (either automatically or manually) linked to it on these four platforms, on each of which I have a related page or feed. I have modestly lively interactions on Twitter, fairly quiet but occasional interactions on Facebook, practically none on Google+, and absolutely zero on Tumblr.

Apparently Google has decided that they, too, have very little going on with their social media platform, and thus their decision. The layout of the platform was actually rather nice; it just never seemed to gain any traction.

So, the disappearance of my Google+ page, and those links from this site, will pass with nearly no one noticing.

I’m tempted to stop publishing to Tumblr as well, as that medium appears to not be very well suited to text; I think it’s more about sharing photos and visual artwork. What do you think?

Should I replace these social sharing platforms with others? Pinterest, perhaps, or LinkedIn? Where do you find it easiest to consume content, or to receive notifications of new publications? Where would you most like to share such content, assuming you’re so inclined?

Let me know what you think!

header image credit: user:Photo-MIX Company / pixabay.com under Pixabay License