Google+ officially splits into Photos and Streams

[hihello]

Google is splitting Google+ apart, breaking the social network's photo element away from what it's now calling "Streams." Bradley Horowitz, a longtime Google VP of product, announced that he had become the new lead for both new products, Google Photos and Streams, in a post on Google+ today. Horowitz steps into the role vacated by David Besbris, who took over the top job at Google+ less than a year ago.

Horowitz says that he's now running Google's Photos and Streams products — two new names for existing elements of Google+ that conspicuously don't reference the social network. The name changes could possibly suggest that Google is planning to kill or significantly alter the brand, but the company has yet to make an announcement to confirm or deny this.

Sundar Pichai, Google's senior vice president of products, suggested that Google was planning to split Google+ into pieces in an interview given to Forbes last week. "I think increasingly you'll see us focus on communications, photos and the Google+ Stream as three important areas, rather than being thought of as one area," Pichai said. Photos and Streams have been separated, but it's not yet clear what will happen to Google+'s communications service — Google Hangouts.

In December, Horowitz said that Hangouts had a particularly broad scope. "It's texting, it's telephony, it's one-to-one, it's many-to-many, it's consumer, it's enterprise," he said at the time. Rival communications services such as Snapchat and What'sApp have seen their stock rise recently, and Google could be planning to split Hangouts off from the auspices of the unpopular Google+. "We're trying to do something broader that helps people communicate wherever they are using whatever products they prefer," Horowitz said.

Source