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  Here's the new Currents logo. [credit: Google ]

Google+ may have shut down its consumer side earlier this month, but the code base still lives on at Google. After diving into the social media wars and getting routed, Google+ will live out its retirement as "Google Currents"—it's the Google+ code base, but with an enterprise focus. The reborn Google+/Currents will now do battle with Facebook again, this time with the enterprise version of Facebook, called "Workplace," and also Microsoft's Yammer. Surely things will go differently this time.

Google Currents is, uh, currently launching as a beta service that G Suite admins can request access to. The enterprise focus means it's for paying G Suite customers only. Google's blog post says Currents "enables people to have meaningful discussions and interactions across your organization, helping keep everyone in the know and giving leaders the opportunity to connect with their employees." Currents looks exactly like Google+, but with a new logo and maybe a slightly whiter color scheme.

Currents is now the second big enterprise communication tool from Google. The other is Google Hangouts Chat, which is a Google's version of a Slack clone. Just like Currents, Hangouts Chat is closely associated with a dying consumer Google product, Google Hangouts. (Why does it seem like G Suite is getting all the consumer leftovers?) Both products will greatly benefit from their association with G Suite, which pulls in enterprise customers with killer apps like Gmail, Calendar, Docs, and Drive. The sales pitch is basically "Since you're already paying for that sweet Gmail account with a custom domain, why not try out these social apps, too?"

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from Ars Technica http://bit.ly/2VCUZ27