Have you used any of Google's Webs services over the past day or so and noticed something missing? If so, you aren't alone (nor are you crazy). The search giant removed the direct link to your profile that used to show up beside your image (+Bill, for example) at the top of its web properties.

You can still get to your account but you'll need to click the app drop-down menu to access the full-sized icon.

While it's way too early to proclaim Google+ is dead, the fact that Google is pushing it away from the forefront is newsworthy. At the same time, it's not entirely surprising.

Back in February, Google's Sundar Pichai said the company was going to focus on Hangouts, Photos and Google+ as three areas of interest instead of just bundling them all together into a single hub.


Image Source: 9to5google

Google+ may have gotten off to a promising start but its early momentum has all but sputtered to a stop. The service attracted more than 20 million users in its first three weeks of availability and surpassed the 60 million member mark by the end of 2011 yet users were still spending 136x more time on rival Facebook. In comparison, Facebook had 1.44 billion monthly active users as of March 2015.

To help drive adoption, Google in 2012 started requiring new Gmail users to have a Google+ account to complete the sign-up process. The company quietly ditched the prerequisite last September.