How so? It's an acknowledgement that forcing Google+ on people was a bad idea and that you can still continue to build awesome products (Google Photos) without a social network. If anything, isn't it a step in the right direction?
Why does google keep on throwing out branding, spinning down a project, only to spin up another one that does the same thing? Why didn't they go back to the Picasa namesake, with all the branding it has?
2018(jan-aug) - ABC Photos
2018 - ABC DOREMI
2019(jan-feb) - ADORE ME Photos
2019 - Adore.me
2021 - Adore.me & Analphebet.photos
edit: To me, the problem is that they're using `Google+` as branding, and `+` as an identifier like `@`.
> Goodbye Twitter@ Photos, Hello @Twitter Photos
Would be equally weird, imo. (Albeit, less weird because we're used to @foo and #foo)
MSN, Bing, Live, MSN Messenger, Windows Messenger, IE, Edge, WinFX, .Net, Groove, Windows Phone, Windows Mobile, etc. There are a bunch of other examples.
Is that Hotmail, Live.com, Outlook.com, or Microsoft?
Don't forget Windows Phone 7 Series and beasts like Microsoft® WinFX™ Software Development Kit for Microsoft® Pre-Release Windows Operating System Code-Named "Longhorn", Beta 1 Web Setup.