Google Plus (also written as Google+) was Google’s answer to Facebook in 2011. Using very similar features, Google Plus integrated (naturally) very well into other Google services, especially YouTube. While it never caught on the way Facebook has—its usage was relatively low at 111 million versus Facebook’s 2.07 billion—it had elegant tools, many of which could be used for various business-communication purposes. In 2019, it was discontinued as a product of Google. For our purposes, let’s explore its former role in business communication as part of our study of social media platforms.

Perhaps the most useful feature of Google Plus was the Communities tool. This tool brought users together around a given theme, such as, “home education in California,” and it then allowed people to connect and interact around that theme. It is similar to Facebook’s Groups feature.

Since we’re discussing the usefulness of Google Plus, here are a list of the pros and cons of the social media platform: