Google no longer to promote Google+ as Facebook rival

Google will no longer be promoting its ambitious Google+ as competition to Facebook and Twitter, media reports said.

Google+ head Brad Horowitz on Monday said users would no longer need a Google+ account to engage with others on Google products. Instead, any Google email or account will do, Wall Street Journal reported.

Google launched Google+ four years ago, seeking to create a big social network with a billion or more people updating their status, posting photos and keeping in touch with friends, family and colleagues.

"The company wanted it to be a 'platform layer' that unified Google's sharing models, as well as a product and a mobile app," Horowitz said in a Google+ update.

"This was a well-intentioned goal, but as realised it led to some product experiences that users sometimes found confusing," he wrote.

Among the most confusing was a requirement that a user have a Google+ account and profile to log into many other Google services.

Horowitz said Google+ will focus on connecting users around specific interests. He said his team is now called SPS, which stands for Streams, Photos and Sharing.

Other things people often share on social networks, like their location, are being moved to other Google apps like the messaging and video-chat service Hangouts, Google said.

"In the coming months, a Google account will be all you'll need to share content, communicate with contacts, create a YouTube channel and more, all across Google," the company was reported as saying.