I Am Going to Miss Google Plus

Yesterday, Google announced that it will be shutting down its Google Plus social platform. After reading reactions to the news on Twitter and elsewhere, it doesn’t seem like this closure is going to cause much sadness. Part of the issue Google had with Google+ is that not many people seemed to use the platform on a regular basis.

This might seem a bit strange considering I hardly use my Google Plus account to share or learn, but I am going to miss Google Plus.

Whenever I receive an inbound offer or inquiry from someone with a Gmail account, I immediately do a Google Plus search for that email address. Although getting information has been a bit hit or miss, it has been helpful on occasion. I will share a few examples of when Google Plus has helped:

  • When someone’s Gmail address and the name they submit is not a “real” name, their Google Plus account may have their real name.
  • Someone with a common name who is difficult to identify might have a photo or image I can match with their LinkedIn or other social media profile to identify them.
  • Identifying a person based on matching social connections.

I don’t use Google Plus for identifying a prospective buyer all that much. Even when I do use Google Plus for this, it’s not totally helpful. That being said, it has helped me a few times, and at zero cost, it’s a great tool that I will miss when Google shuts it down.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

5 COMMENTS

  1. I thought it had a chance when they began adding author information in search results which seemed to boost ranking slightly or at least call out the listing more by making it larger and more noticeable; but even that was being manipulated. When they removed that feature, I think most people who were using it, primarily marketers, lost interest in the Google+ network and it was a failed endeavour since. I won’t miss it at all. It should be done away with. Google made several attempts at social networks and it’s just never been in the cards for them.

  2. We simply do not do business with any prospective buyer that uses a fake name and/or junk email address. That is our policy. We want to only deal with true business people operating in good faith.

    Why would we do business with any business person using the anonymity of the Internet to hide behind an alias when they are seeking to buy our valuable domain name when we would never stand for such chicanery when they are seeking to buy our home or our investment real estate?

    Would you truly ever take a buyer seriously if they used a fake name and email address to make a $5,000 offer on your house? No! So, why take any domain name buyer seriously under the same conditions?

    In response, we ask in the name of transparency and good faith business dealings that the buyer resubmit their offer using their real name and to do so from their employer’s email address. If we don’t hear from them again, good — we will have avoided a business person operating in bad faith. If they come back, own up to their unprofessional behavior, and make a serious offer, good — that is a business person we are happy to negotiate with.

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