Google announces new business features after Google+ closes to public

Google just introduced new enterprise features for Google+ after shutting the social media site to the public on Monday.REUTERS/Robert Galbraith

• Google announced new business features for Google+ on Thursday, just days after it closed Google+ to the public.
• Google is in the midst of controversy — and possible legal action — over its decision not to disclose a glitch in Google+ that left users’ data exposed.
• The new features on Google+ are designed to make it easier for employees to engage in conversations across the company, and give IT admins more capabilities.

Google announced on Thursday that it’s adding new features to Google+ for businesses — just days after Google shuttered Google+ to the general public after reports that it had left personal data exposed.

Google is now facing possible investigations from European regulators, and lawsuits from users from California. In addition, United States Senators are asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Google’s decision not to disclose the security flaw to the public. 

Google+ was Google’s response to Facebook, but it never generated much of a following compared to the top social network. Even Google’s top executives stopped using it years ago. However, Google is continuing to invest in the other market for Google+: Businesses. 

“Over the past year, we’ve been building a new experience that’s designed specifically to meet the needs of large organizations with distributed workforces,” David Conway, product manager at Google, said in a blog post.

Some of these new business features include tags that make it easier for employees to engage in conversations across their company, custom streams about specific tags or people, engagement metrics for content, and additional capabilities for admins.

Google announced a custom streams feature for businesses in Google+.Google

For example, with the new features, admins can bulk-add entire groups to a Google+ community, easing the process of onboarding users. They can also view engagement metrics for employees’ Google+ communities. Later on, Google plans to roll out a feature for admins to review and moderate posts by employees, if needed.

With tags, employees can follow specific content with the tag they want to find or discuss new ideas. And with custom streams, employees can more easily receive communications from executives. Google will also provide post analytics so employees can see which teams are viewing this content.

Companies like ATB Financial have already been testing these new features, and Google is planning more features for 2019. Whether this more enterprise-driven direction of Google+ will have better success than its discontinued iteration remains to be seen.

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