Google remains determined to make Google+ a viable social network, despite a high level of scepticism towards the project.
In a PR blow for Google, games developer Wooga says it will pull its two social games, Diamond Dash and Bubble Island, from Google+ as of July 1, 2012. “We decided to remove certain games from Google+ because we have a much larger following on Facebook and they are active users,” said Wooga.
Electronic Arts’ PopCap division is also pulling its only game from Google+, Bejeweled Blitz, this Monday.
Both of these incidents will cause Google much public relations pain. High profile votes of no confidence are very damaging, especially within the gaming community as developers simply don’t want to waste their time developing for a social platform that has very few users.
Despite these set-backs, Google soldiers on with its social network and is dressing up one of its major assets to look a lot like Google+.
A redesign of YouTube is being rolled out and it looks similar to Google+. The new look YouTube no longer has the black side bar and is whiter and more minimalist in style. There are also larger video thumbnails and the middle video feed looks wider.
The YouTube redesign follows Google’s redesign of Google+ in April of this year. This YouTube redesign is its second touch up in the space of six months. In December of last year, Google integrated YouTube’s front page with social media. Google+ recently added features that allow users of Google+ Hangout to broadcast their ‘hangouts’ on YouTube. Users of Hangout are now also able to share videos from YouTube with the people they are in teleconference with (much like the feature on Microsoft’s so.cl network).
There is no suggestion that Google is planning to fully merge YouTube with Google+, but this latest redesign, as well as all the latest YouTube features on Google+, suggests something could be on the cards.
The image above was sent to Endgadget from a user who is taking part in a test of the re-designed site.
