diff --git a/cmd/faucet/faucet.go b/cmd/faucet/faucet.go
index 78b4a65634..08b23d46cd 100644
--- a/cmd/faucet/faucet.go
+++ b/cmd/faucet/faucet.go
@@ -88,6 +88,11 @@ var (
 	ether = new(big.Int).Exp(big.NewInt(10), big.NewInt(18), nil)
 )
 
+var (
+	gitCommit = "" // Git SHA1 commit hash of the release (set via linker flags)
+	gitDate   = "" // Git commit date YYYYMMDD of the release (set via linker flags)
+)
+
 func main() {
 	// Parse the flags and set up the logger to print everything requested
 	flag.Parse()
@@ -216,7 +221,7 @@ func newFaucet(genesis *core.Genesis, port int, enodes []*discv5.Node, network u
 	// Assemble the raw devp2p protocol stack
 	stack, err := node.New(&node.Config{
 		Name:    "geth",
-		Version: params.VersionWithMeta,
+		Version: params.VersionWithCommit(gitCommit, gitDate),
 		DataDir: filepath.Join(os.Getenv("HOME"), ".faucet"),
 		P2P: p2p.Config{
 			NAT:              nat.Any(),
@@ -440,10 +445,14 @@ func (f *faucet) apiHandler(conn *websocket.Conn) {
 				return
 			}
 			continue
+		case strings.HasPrefix(msg.URL, "https://plus.google.com/"):
+			if err = sendError(conn, errors.New("Google+ authentication discontinued as the service was sunset")); err != nil {
+				log.Warn("Failed to send Google+ deprecation to client", "err", err)
+				return
+			}
+			continue
 		case strings.HasPrefix(msg.URL, "https://twitter.com/"):
 			username, avatar, address, err = authTwitter(msg.URL)
-		case strings.HasPrefix(msg.URL, "https://plus.google.com/"):
-			username, avatar, address, err = authGooglePlus(msg.URL)
 		case strings.HasPrefix(msg.URL, "https://www.facebook.com/"):
 			username, avatar, address, err = authFacebook(msg.URL)
 		case *noauthFlag:
@@ -699,40 +708,6 @@ func authTwitter(url string) (string, string, common.Address, error) {
 	return username + "@twitter", avatar, address, nil
 }
 
-// authGooglePlus tries to authenticate a faucet request using GooglePlus posts,
-// returning the username, avatar URL and Ethereum address to fund on success.
-func authGooglePlus(url string) (string, string, common.Address, error) {
-	// Ensure the user specified a meaningful URL, no fancy nonsense
-	parts := strings.Split(url, "/")
-	if len(parts) < 4 || parts[len(parts)-2] != "posts" {
-		return "", "", common.Address{}, errors.New("Invalid Google+ post URL")
-	}
-	username := parts[len(parts)-3]
-
-	// Google's API isn't really friendly with direct links. Still, we don't
-	// want to do ask read permissions from users, so just load the public posts and
-	// scrape it for the Ethereum address and profile URL.
-	res, err := http.Get(url)
-	if err != nil {
-		return "", "", common.Address{}, err
-	}
-	defer res.Body.Close()
-
-	body, err := ioutil.ReadAll(res.Body)
-	if err != nil {
-		return "", "", common.Address{}, err
-	}
-	address := common.HexToAddress(string(regexp.MustCompile("0x[0-9a-fA-F]{40}").Find(body)))
-	if address == (common.Address{}) {
-		return "", "", common.Address{}, errors.New("No Ethereum address found to fund")
-	}
-	var avatar string
-	if parts = regexp.MustCompile("src=\"([^\"]+googleusercontent.com[^\"]+photo.jpg)\"").FindStringSubmatch(string(body)); len(parts) == 2 {
-		avatar = parts[1]
-	}
-	return username + "@google+", avatar, address, nil
-}
-
 // authFacebook tries to authenticate a faucet request using Facebook posts,
 // returning the username, avatar URL and Ethereum address to fund on success.
 func authFacebook(url string) (string, string, common.Address, error) {