Google+ is dead, it will be buried on April 2, 2019. In my opinion the design and implementation of this social networking platform was superior in many respects to Facebook, Twitter, and other applications with some of these innovative features.

• Circles – Defined groups of people based upon relationships and/or interests
• Communities – Groups with different interests. Groups can be private or public
• Collections – Posts grouped under a single topic similar to Pinterest
• Search – Powered by Google

I’m an active but reluctant user of Facebook. I use it because so many of my friends and family are there. I spent a lot of energy convincing them to leave and join me on Google+ with only partial success. Google didn’t make it easy by insisting that they have a Google+ account. That proved to be a deal breaker for many of them. Still I did manage to attract 67 people to my friends and family private community. I was more successful attracting 328 photographers which shared photos of New Hampshire. I was able to keep it free of spammers and irrelevant postings.

I’ve looking for an alternatives and found two candidates, MeWe and YouMe. Both platforms have silly names, but show some promise as a viable choice for a social site. I’ve only managed to get 34 friends and family to sign up on my private MeWe account and none on my YouMe account. I suspect they have finally given up on my OCD behavior. It seems I have reached the point of diminishing returns. My buddy told me this morning that he followed me on MeWe but would go no further.

The Winner is…

I have not chosen a winner, both platforms are in transition. MeWe will be adding a verification link for former Google+ users, YouMe will be launching a new dashboard on Friday. Google+ will not rise from the dead but we might see something better. Say tuned.