Google Plus is back. While the social network never really went away, in July Google announced it was stripping away some of the platform’s features to make Google Plus more “focused.”

The relaunched Google Plus blends features reminiscent of Reddit and Pinterest with what it calls Communities and Collections. The Collections piece, in particular, could help retailers drive consumers to their sites by providing a way for users to group posts and photos by such topics as “Wedding Planning.”

“With Collections and Communities, discovering amazing things is simple: Just follow or join whatever happens to pique your interests,” writes Luke Wroblewski, a Google product director, in a post on the social network.

Most large online retailers have Google Plus profiles; 813 of the 1,000 largest online retailers in North America have a Google Plus account, according to Internet Retailer’s Top500Guide.com.

Google Plus launched in June 2011 to much fanfare, but it struggled to distinguish its platform from Facebook and other social networks. Even so, 33% of teens use the platform, according to an April report by Pew Research Center, a not-for-profit research group that studies consumer behavior and the Internet. That’s far less than the 71% of teens who use Facebook, 52% who use Instagram and 41% who use Snapchat, but the same percentage who use Twitter.

In relaunching Google Plus, Google aims to appeal to its most active users. Google says Communities averages 1.2 million “joins” per day; consumers must click to join a specific group. And the Pinterest-like Collections feature launched five months ago “is growing even faster,” says Google, declining to share specific figures.

“The new Google Plus is much simpler,” writes Bradley Horowitz, vice president of streams, photos and sharing. “And it’s more mobile-friendly—we’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.”

While Google Plus had been an opt-out social network, that is, anyone who signed into a Google product was given a Google Plus account, consumers now have to opt in to the social network.

Google still isn’t selling advertising on the social network. However, in providing a forum that encourages shoppers to collect products and discuss their interests Google may be gathering information that marketers could use to target those consumers elsewhere online—or if it later sells ads.

 

 

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