I remember believing Google+ will win because it was quite nicely done. But I guess it never caught on with the masses to be successful in Google's definition of success (Adsense?).
PS: I was thinking that I didn't notice it being shoved down because I was high on the Koolaid. But I do remember when they shoved it in YouTube comments.
Google+ lost because when they launched, they didn't let everyone join. That means that people joined and couldn't bring their friends over, so they bounced off of it. By the time they opened it up to everyone it had a bad reputation of being "dead". And then of being obnoxious when Google refused to allow it natural growth.
I think they intended to be like Facebook and have a selective group of people join, but they just allowed any random set of people to join and then said tou can bring 5 or some low number with you. That was never going to work for the rapid growth they wanted.
I liked Google+, but it Google really mismanaged it.
The other issue is that the dumbass at Google behind it isolated the Google+ team in their own building with their own cafeteria expecting it to be a really big deal, forgetting and abandoning the rest of the company he needed for that to happen. I figured it was dead at the Friday TGIF where they announced the annual bonus for most googlers wouldn't be relative to the success of google+ in any way.
PS: I was thinking that I didn't notice it being shoved down because I was high on the Koolaid. But I do remember when they shoved it in YouTube comments.