Google+ revived, with a new focus on 'topics' to try and bring quiet social network back to life

The company said that it had been visiting people in their homes to find out what people wanted to happen to Google+

A worker pauses while preparing the Google stand the day before the CeBIT 2012 technology trade fair officially opens to the public on March 5, 2012 in Hanover, Germany (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Google+ won’t go quietly — the social network has been revived and redesigned in an attempt to get it going one more time.

Though Google’s social network is loved by a small group of people and had a huge launch, it has fallen mostly into disuse. Google has been slowly removing features that came with the original Google+, putting them into their own apps and giving the impression that Google+ itself might be retired.

But the site has come back, redesigned so that it looks more like a forum or Reddit than Twitter or Facebook, as it once did. Where once it was arranged around a timeline and profiles, it will now be made up of collections and communities.

That will allow people to keep up with and talk about their interests, using sections like surfing or photography. Google said that it had spoken to users and found that was what more people were looking for from the service.

“We visited them in their homes, we invited them into early testing communities and we learned more about how and why they use Google+,” wrote Luke Wroblewski, a product director at Google, in a post on the site.

“The predominant answer? Having a great place to keep up with and talk about their interests.”

It said that the same findings came from analysis of how people were using the site.

The company also said that the site had been redesigned to be “more mobile-friendly — 've rebuilt it across web, Android and iOS so that you'll have a fast and consistent experience whether you are on a big screen or small one”.

Originally, the site was founded as a competitor to Twitter or Facebook, allowing people to set up accounts and add friends, all of whom would be added to circles like in real life. But despite huge pushes from Google, it never really took off, and the site has been looking for ways to break into social networks ever since.