Google to remove Google+ from YouTube and other products

Google announced today that it made the decision to untie the bond between its social networking service Google+ and YouTube. In addition, Bradley Horowitz, VP of Streams, Photo and Sharing mentioned on the official Google Blog that the company would make additional changes to how content is shared, how Google users communication and how company services are used.

Comments on the video hosting and streaming site YouTube no longer require a Google+ account as of today.

This means a couple of things. First, comments made on YouTube won't show up on Google+ anymore. Second, YouTube won't require a Google+ account anymore if you want to use publishing features on the site. In particular, a Google+ account won't be required anymore to create a channel, and the dreaded "update your channel to comment" message on the site will go away as well.

Users may even remove the Google+ profile from their YouTube account but are advised not to do so right now as the feature has not been implemented yet. This means that users will delete their channel if they do it right now. Google plans to make an announcement when the option becomes available.

Google removed Google+ in one way or another from several of its products in the past, Photos for instance became a dedicated application just recently and the service lots its prominent place in the main Google toolbar on many of the company's service websites.

While YouTube is the first Google service to receive the treatment, the company made it clear that it plans to remove Google+ from other services as well.

So in the coming months, a Google Account will be all you’ll need to share content, communicate with contacts, create a YouTube channel and more, all across Google.

There won't be much left of Google+ after the cleansing and one question that may come to mind is whether Google plans to abandon the service in the future. It would not be the first product of the company to receive the treatment, considering that previous social networking products such as Google Buzz or Orkut received it as well.

The new core of Google+ will be the product website where users share articles, ideas and information.  It remains to be seen how successful Google+ will be on its own without the push it received from its deep integration with other Google products.

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