The Google+ Direct Connect feature in which you could quickly find Google+ pages in the search results by using the "+" command has quietly slipped away. A Google spokesperson said it was no longer a focus for Google moving forward.
Remember when you could find Google+ pages simply by typing the plus symbol (“+”) in front of the business name? For example, typing +Search Engine Watch would bring you directly to SEW’s Google+ page.
Oh, did you not know that wasn’t available anymore? Neither did we. In fact, Google+ Direct Connect quietly slipped away, Search Engine Land reported.
Here’s a reminder of how that functionality worked, from Google:
When it launched in 2011, Direct Connect linked search and social in a whole new way. It isn’t clear when it went missing, officially.
A Google spokesperson told SEL: “That particular feature is not a focus for us moving forward.”
It also appears the Google+ help files associated with it are gone. But, I found an article as early as fall of last year giving a tutorial on it – so it seems to have gone away sometime in the last 7 months.
If indeed it did quietly slip away without much chatter, perhaps the adoption rate was low. Or, maybe Google figured there are other, better ways to access Google+ pages in the results, like in the Knowledge Graph results.
Curious, when’s the last time you used the “+” command to find Google+ pages? Are you disappointed it’s going away?
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