If you're a brand-new Google user, then you might have noticed—or taken advantage of—a new modification that no longer ties your account to the company's Google+ social platform.
According to a new report from Marketing Land, Google has quietly shelved the requirement that new Google account creators also create a Google+ profile during the signup process. This is a pretty big step for the search giant, as Google had been mandating this Google+ account creation for the better part of 2.5 years or so—since January 2012.
Now, when you go to create a new Google account, you'll be given the option to sign up for a Google+ account. However, if you don't elect to click the 'Create your profile' button, you can make use of the brand-new 'No thanks' button to opt out of the process.
'Some will see this change as more evidence that Google is de-emphasizing (or even preparing to kill) its three-year-old social network. That was popular speculation in April after Vic Gundotra, Google's godfather of Google+, stepped down in April. More heads were nodding when Google removed the display of Google+ authorship information from search results last month,' Martin Beck writes.
'But more likely, in my opinion, is that Google will continue making subtle changes to the service, making improvements to popular Google+ products like Hangouts and Hangouts on Air or even spinning off its excellent photo product so people without Google+ accounts can use it.'
It is certainly plausible that Google cares more about functionality and integration than raw numbers at this point. It's highly doubtful the service will ever become as ingrained with one's digital lifestyle as, say, Facebook, Twitter, or the lot.
That said, it's important to note that Google isn't lessening the impact of Google+ within its other services. You're free to ignore the social network to your heart's content. However, doing so will prevent you from being able to do things like leave app reviews, upload videos to YouTube, et cetera.
It remains to be seen if this slight tweak represents some sort of greater signal regarding Google's ambitions with Google+. At least, that's the current speculation—not helped by the fact that Google senior vice president for social and Google+ co-creator, Vic Gundotra, stepped down from his position this past April. Google also stopped forcing Google+ users to use their real names on their accounts this past July, and an August report from Bloomberg indicated that Google is planning to extract Google+ Photos into its own separate service.
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