The company cited low user engagement and disclosed software design flaws that potentially allowed outside developers access to personal information of millions of users. Contents • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • History [ ] Creation [ ] Google+ is the company's fourth foray into social networking, following (launched 2010, retired in 2011), (launched 2008, retired by March 2012), and (launched in 2004, as of 2013 operated entirely by subsidiary Google Brazil – retired in September 2014 ). Google+ launched in June 2011. Features included the ability to post photos and status updates to the stream or interest-based communities, group different types of relationships (rather than simply 'friends') into Circles, a multi-person instant messaging, text and video chat called, events, location tagging, and the ability to edit and upload photos to private cloud-based albums. According to a 2016 book by a former Facebook employee, some leaders at saw Google's foray into social networking as a serious threat to the company. Facebook founder instituted a company-wide 'lockdown', signaling that employees were supposed to dedicate time to bringing Facebook's features into line with Google+.