Well the Google God giveth and the Google God taketh away... Authorship markup or rel=author to the more techie minded is no more.
To those who still have no idea what I'm waffling on about, here is an authorship enabled search result before and after pic!
So no more pretty pics (or ugly mug shots in my case) cluttering up the search results, and no more signposting in the search results back to Google Plus pages.
Theories aplenty abound as to why, from a Dallas soap type scenario where a Google Engineer woke up from a dream, to the more official reason that it was a 3 year Google experiment which didn't go the way Google liked.
So was it good while it lasted? I think click through increased in the early days when mug shots were a novelty, but as they became common place, I think people almost tuned them out. I was more interested in the much speculation about author rank, and it's use as a possible ranking signal for search results. But that's all gone out of the window (for now at least).
So the question for the average small business, is there any great need now to utilise Google Plus?
I'm still a fan.
I think it has lost a lot of credibility with the loss of the authorship and just ditching the photos would have done the job.
But it's still very worth while having a Google Local listing, which will show up in Google maps, using Google reviews, and using the odd post (once a month) so it shows up in your brand name searches in the results, on the right:
But will you still have the same interaction on Google Plus as you did before when every potential post may generate a bigger following, or contribute to a mythical author rank?
Who knows. Google recently added visible pageviews to Google Plus profiles leading to speculation this could be a new kind of author rank. There has also been talk that there isn't a relationship (at least algorithm wise) between follower numbers and pageviews. But is there?
You may have gamed the system and generated 10,000 followers, but if no one ever views your content, then your follower to pageview ratio will be low suggesting your more interested in acquiring vanity numbers rather than generating quality or engaging content or discussions?
Could this be the new authorship?
Google these days seems to be one giant ongoing experiment, and it can be hard work to keep up with the speed of change, especially when figuring how to incorporate the current best practices into new code releases.
But at least there is one silver lining. Now authorship is dead, so are the rules saying you need to have a head and shoulders mug shot on your Google Plus profile!
So the world no longer has to see my mug, and I can wheel the old faithful avatar back out 
Does anyone mourn the passing of authorship or have any views on the impact it may or may not have on google plus?
