In a blog post today Google announced some changes upcoming to Google + and how users can use just a Google account to create accounts and share info. There have been complaints over the last couple of years that you needed a Google + profile to act as your identity. Your Google + profile for example if public, is searchable. Not everyone likes that aspect of Google + and now it looks like just a regular Google account which is non-searchable will be all that is needed.
From the blog post:
Using Google without a Google+ profile
People have told us that accessing all of their Google stuff with one account makes life a whole lot easier. But we’ve also heard that it doesn’t make sense for your Google+ profile to be your identity in all the other Google products you use.So in the coming months, a Google Account will be all you’ll need to share content, communicate with contacts, create a YouTube channel and more, all across Google. YouTube will be one of the first products to make this change, and you can learn more on their blog. As always, your underlying Google Account won’t be searchable or followable, unlike public Google+ profiles. And for people who already created Google+ profiles but don’t plan to use Google+ itself, we’ll offer better options for managing and removing those public profiles.
You’ll see these changes roll out in stages over several months. While they won’t happen overnight, they’re right for Google’s users—both the people who are on Google+ every single day, and the people who aren’t.
Read the full post here