Google reminds world of Google+ by kill-switching it.

Stimulus:

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Google discovered a “software glitch” earlier this year that allowed third-party developers access to some 500,000 private profile data since 2015, including “full names, email addresses, birth dates, gender, profile photos, places lived, occupation and relationship status.”

Response:

In a blog post about its Project Strobe initiative, which is a “root-and-branch review of third-party developer access to Google account and Android device data,” Google announced that it will be shutting down Google+ for consumers between now and August due to “significant challenges” to maintaining a social network.

I kind of have — had, I guess — a Google+ presence, but I never really used it for anything.  I also have no idea whether I’m affected by any of this, which is actually kind of worrying on a couple of different levels.  There are days when I think that the Internet needs a good power wash; not for content (although, God, some of the stuff that festers in places), but for cleaning out all the failed initiatives and half-built projects and never-quite-gelled systems that have accumulated over the years.  Not that I have any idea how we’d do that, of course.