Every once in a while, we need to shine the spotlight on some industry news and this is especially the case if it affects some of the tools that we employ here on “The Chronicles” and of course on PiercingMetal.com – Recently, the folks at Automattic announced their purchase of the Tumblr medium. As you know, Automattic is also the owner of WordPress which we use for both of our websites. Read on down below for their owners statement on this news.
Automattic + Tumblr:
Those of you who’ve followed my Tumblr over the years have probably come to expect a mix of travel photos and the occasional link to my WordPress blog. Well, today is different. I’m delighted to share that Automattic is acquiring Tumblr.
Back in 2013, I reflected on how friendly the relationship has always been between WordPress.com and Tumblr, and on the exciting future I saw for web-publishing platforms like ours. In the intervening years, the Tumblr team has continued to impress me with their ability to create an intuitive publishing experience on desktop and on mobile, and to foster so many thriving, passionate communities. I have worked on WordPress my entire adult life — 16 years now — and so the democratization of publishing is near and dear to my heart. Tumblr and WordPress have always been very philosophically aligned there. Continue reading Automattic Acquires Tumblr From Verizon→
It was only a short while ago that I opened up my G+ for the two websites and was greeted by this message “Google+ is no longer available for consumer (personal) and brand accounts. From all of us on the Google+ team, thank you for making Google+ such a special place”. I’ve used this service since its launch and the notice continued with the text you can see down below. If you were a user you probably already have seen it but this is for the rest of us.
What happened to Google+?
In December 2018, we announced our decision to shut down Google+ for consumers in April 2019.
Other Google products (such as Gmail, Google Photos, Google Drive, YouTube) were not shut down as part of the consumer Google+ shutdown and you can continue using those products. The Google Account you use to sign in to these services will remain. Note that photos and videos already backed up in Google Photos will not be deleted. Learn more.
What happened to my Google+ content?
We are in the process of deleting content from consumer Google+ accounts and Google+ pages. This process will take a few months to complete, and content may remain through this time. In the meantime, if you previously created content on Google+, you may be able to download and save your remaining Google+ content and delete your Google+ profile. You may also be able to view and delete your remaining Google+ activity.
If I also use Google+ with my G Suite account, for example at work or school, how will I be impacted? Continue reading “Thank You Goodnight”; Google+ Has Ended (6/2011-4/2019)→
Back in December I shared the news about the Google+ Social Network going away and added some editorial notations to the facts because we’ve been using the service for both PiercingMetal.com and this website that you are reading right now. If you missed that posting it’s not a problem since you can check it out by clicking HERE. Just a short while ago, I received an email based on my being a user and I’ve culled it all together for you just in case you also use the network and this message to you went to spam. Dig in, and know that I will close with more editorial afterwards.
The Message:
You’ve received this email because you have a consumer (personal) Google+ account or you manage a Google+ page.
In December 2018, we announced our decision to shut down Google+ for consumers in April 2019 due to low usage and challenges involved in maintaining a successful product that meets consumers’ expectations. We want to thank you for being part of Google+ and provide next steps, including how to download your photos and other content.
On April 2nd, your Google+ account and any Google+ pages you created will be shut down and we will begin deleting content from consumer Google+ accounts. Photos and videos from Google+ in your Album Archive and your Google+ pages will also be deleted. You can download and save your content, just make sure to do so before April. Note that photos and videos backed up in Google Photos will not be deleted. Continue reading Google+: The Countdown To The Shutdown→
Users of the Google+ Social Networking tool will have to figure out another option next April because the search engine giant Google is shutting this service down completely at some point during that month. Google discussed the issue on their Official Blog only a couple of days ago and while it had become knowledge that the service would end in August, they have moved the timeline up by four months and come April it all goes away. As opposed to para-phrasing the lengthy blog post, those who wish to see what the scoop is can click HERE to read it.
I’ve been using Google+ since the service first launched in 2011 for both of my websites and if you are so inclined you can click either logo to be brought to the account which I will then ask you to subscribe to while you can. My plan is to load up the feed and eventually direct you to alternatives that I will be using for each of the websites. Obviously the PiercingMetal.com one focuses on the Heavy Music and the Pop Culture offerings on the main website and its related social networks.
The Piercing Ken one caters to the Lifestyle Branded items found on this website. Dedicated readers to this side of the creative fence know full well how busy its become over the last few years and there is no sign of that stopping if I have my say about it.
Over the years of using this as a means to share content with whomever chose to follow our profiles, it felt that it was a great way to “feed” the website posts and some of our other social networking doings with people who found it interesting. Truth be told, I rarely engaged anyone and barely built up a following that showed the love by clicking the circle that showed we had them in our corner. The profiles for each proper Official Google+ had several hundred followers but the Official Brand Pages didn’t. I made sure people saw the posts by letting them go live on the Branded Page and then sharing them down to the profile account. Sure the traffic to the server logs was consistent but it was even harder to get fans to lock it in via this tool than it was to get the same in Facebook. My plans are to keep using it until the cutoff date because it is feeding our content out to the web on a regular basis. With so much writing happening on PiercingMetal.com and here on “The Chronicles” I want to take advantage of it for as long as I can. I think that Google should have ramped up their security protocols to protect this and kept the “Buzz” service they had (discussed long ago HERE). Had they connected the two and expanded their Hangouts medium as a messenger they would really have dominated the social networks and you wouldn’t have needed much else. The termination of Google+ leaves us only Facebook as a medium and at this point in my life, I am only really using Facebook to administer my website Official Pages. Both sites use Twitter but only PiercingMetal.com has a Tumblr account in addition to the Google+; Tumblr recently announced the cleansing of all adult themed content so it might be a good idea to create an account there and follow us that way. More about the cleanup can be found HERE.
At the point of this writing there are over 50 million users of the Google+ service and while the data breach is serious business, it would have been nice to find them stemming off any issues but they didn’t and soon it will go away. Some of you users might want to completely delete your content account before the shutdown and don’t worry this will not mess up your actual Google account like Gmail.com and YouTube etc. This will only erase the Google+ stuff. I’ll close up now but suggest to those who wish to keep up with us to hit out “About Pages” to find our other social mediums and I mean right here on “The Chronicles” and PiercingMetal.com – Since we are already here I’ll add links for you down below as well. Let’s hope for the best and that something new and exciting will come along. See you next time.
I wanted to take a moment to share some Internet news with you readers, and especially is you are users of the StumbleUpon service. Sadly, this means of stumbling upon something cool on the Interwebs will be going away tomorrow and I’ve secured the Official Statement from one of their co-founder, Garrett Camp. They plan on taking any lessons learned from SU to the next level of “content discovery” via a new medium called Mix. Let’s continue.
“After careful consideration, we’ve made the decision to focus fully on building Mix and transition StumbleUpon accounts into Mix.com over the next couple months. We have built Mix to work on every browser and smartphone, to make the transition as smooth as possible. With a few clicks you can register and import your SU favorites, interests and tags creating Mix Collections that are easily shared with friends.”
What It Was: StumbleUpon was a discovery and advertisement engine (a form of web search engine) that pushed recommends of web content to its users. Its features allowed users to discover and rate Web pages, photos and videos that are personalized to their tastes and interests using peer-sourcing, social-networking and advertising (sponsored pages) principles. (c/o Wiki).
Piercing Ken Thoughts: Okay so I truthfully hate anything that can potentially lead a site visitor to a medium like my own two websites. It’s 2018, and unless you pay for Facebook Page likes, your postings on that are unseen by most of the ones who really enjoy it and with over 1 billion active websites currently online, I say its every site founder for themselves in trying to get you to their entertainment offerings. I currently have a SU account but its been years since I last used it and with it going away tomorrow I am thinking to just let it go. I never saved anything and instead used it to showcase my own posts in discussion boards about similar topics. Perhaps in time I will look into what Mix.com is all about but if it doesn’t help what I am doing on this or the PiercingMetal.com website, I will likely not be sticking around. If you are using it and don’t care to move on, I suggest that you login one last time and delete your account for good measure. I’ve begun deleting a number of my seldom used Internet accounts because I really didn’t need them anymore and can find the information they once provided easier somewhere else. What about you readers? Are you impacted by the looming end of StumbleUpon or will you be okay and get by without it. Chime in down below.
