Former Google+ Developer Vents Frustrations Through A Brutally Frank Blog Post

Chris Messina, who has been formerly a part of Google+ as a developer and UX designer, vented his frustration through a post on Medium . In his blog, he criticised the service for its failure to deliver its initial vision of empowering users with the large amount of data that Google collects about them. He also disliked the idea of not giving any efforts in setting apart Google+ over Facebook, which is clearly its more successful competitor. He also expressed his big dislike when people refer to Google+ as some kind of newsfeed or what others call as "Facebook-lite".

The Nov. 28 blog post was a follow-up to a tweet where he admitted that he erroneously called out a bug on Google+, which at the end was found out to be actually caused by an external app. Although he corrected himself in the blog, he still called out the company about its wrong turns for the network.

Messina, who is popular for inventing the hashtag, admits that Google's social network has many loyal users and that it has also become a go-to service for a few specific topics like photography and the likes. Apparently, he had also worked on the already defunct Google Buzz before he landed on Google+.

If only Google had focused on the initial promise of Google+, which was internally known as "Google Me," Messina thinks that the company might have achieved converts to its social network by being a more trusted party for the information that users share online. With the data given, Google Me or Google+ could have created meaningful connections based on the given information while keeping control over privacy and sharing in the hands of the user.

But despite all these, Messina still wants Google to succeed and still be able to compete with Facebook. The former Google man also emphasised that the company has all the chances to succeed given its bountiful resources and strong leaders, News.com.AU reports.

Finally, Google's next plan for its own social network appears to be vague. As Messina pointed out, since he left the company a year ago there have been a few evident updates to Google+ but he also noted that a possible full rebranding may take place in the end.