This is a smart move IMO. I think that social networks were over-valued to such an extent that functionality was often sacrificed. Google does services well, and social does not mix well with every service.
As a long time youtube community member, good riddance to bad rubbish. Their excuse of attaching your G+ profile to your comments did nothing to improve the vitriol that appears there, and it also ended up messing with the brand of a lot of mid-to-high-tier youtubers, killing a lot of revenue.
That reminded me that I still have my diaspora profile on the original pod that I've done absolutely nothing with. I'm bad at social networks.
I joined the beta, and invited over a hundred friends, made a huge song and dance to everyone i know about finally leaving facebook. I was all in on the Google hypetrain I bought their hardware, bought their stock and used all their services. Then one day out of nowhere they suspended my account, claiming my name was not a real name. I disputed the decision, and they demanded photo identification to reinstate the account. I'll admit my name is strange, but they already had my name, bank details and home address, they knew my entire family, my work, my daily movements, my tastes and desires, everything about me. But that still wasn't enough. For a while I tried to dispute it, to get my account back, to talk to my friends and family again. Then my Google phone broke, and it became clear that Google just doesn't do support. There isn't a number you can call, there isn't any store you can walk into or any chat line to contact them through. After repeatedly sending emails off into the ether and never receiving a reply, i just stopped caring.
FINALLY. You cannot shove social networks down people's throats. It will never, ever work. What's most surprising is that Google continued to dedicate resources and push and integrate G+ as heavily as they did for so long. It's been 4 years since it launched, yet it was obvious that it was not going to take off within 6 months. It's a shame that they kept their marketing / business strategy so focused around G+ for so long. Those decisions really made me question Google's true motives and the quantity of information they have access to about me. At least Facebook is limited to segment of my life: photos and posts about me, friends I interact with online, etc. Google has the ability to know everything - what I'm working on, where I live, what I do, the emails I send, the documents I write, (if I had an android phone) where I drive, who I hang out with, etc. The thing that worried me about G+ was the fact that they would know all the stuff they already knew + everything Facebook knows. That's a terrifying thought....and that Google's mission to force Google+ into every product will end.
In the words of the Diablo 3 Templar... GLORIOUS!!! G+ integration was one of the many things which tainted YouTube, along with bad copyright policies, ContentID, constant bugs with their Flash and HTML5 video players and constant 'improvements' to the website's layout which made the site even more confusing and which nobody asked for. I just hope that Google focus more on improving the products they already have, or expanding Google Fiber to more than 3 or 4 small US towns. As somebody currently on 100Mbps broadband with a somewhat decent major ISP, Google Fiber could only sweeten the competition if Google would expand to the UK.
His user name is jaggs if you want to shout out to him. I've always enjoyed my conversations on Hubski with him, I don't think he is affiliated with Google in any way, but I do know that he is a tech journalist and the founder of redferret.com Seemed a nice enough fella.