(CNN)Google desperately wanted to copy Facebook’s success on social media. Instead it may be left with a version of one of Facebook’s biggest failures.
In 2011, as Facebook was rapidly approaching the one-billion-active-user milestone, Google made a last-ditch effort to beat back its online rival with the launch of a rival social network called Google+. The service unmistakably resembled Facebook, though with some novel additions, including more customized sharing options and group video chats.
Seven years later, Google+ — the also-ran social network that Google was never willing to let die — is finally being moved to the company’s trash folder, joining previously abandoned social products like Google Reader, Wave, Buzz and Orkut.
