I already use duckduckgo. It is not as good as Google used to be but a lot less annoying - and Google is not as good as it used to be either, so I consider duckduckgo best now. Also trying with Google after duckduckgo is faster than the other way around.
I already Signal but although more and more people join, nobody uses it for day-to-day texts and family updates.
Everyone I know uses Telegram and even after following all discussions here I'm fine with that.
> That's the same problem that a new social network is going to face. I think it's safe to say that if even Google with all their capital couldn't make it work, then it's going to be extremely difficult to find investors to bet on a random guy's idea.
Partly agree. But I think an Instagram or WhatsApp style bootstrapping of a new social network is still possible and no one has stepped up to take the plave of Google+.
Remember, it was Google that ran it. I suspect it was utterly mismanaged.
A number of things can work very well even if Google can't make it work.