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Google is making a huge and annoying mistake

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Re: Google is making a huge and annoying mistake

#111

Post by rapind »

adamc wrote: post #100
amirmc wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is my take on things but happy to hear other views. Google (and Facebook) are advertising based so try thinking about it in terms of how well they know their users. The better they know their users, the more specifically they can target ads to them. For example, if I wanted to reach 20-somethings, who really like pizza and motorbikes, travel widely and currently reside on the west coast, FB can put ads in front…

I have to say that it sounds like an excellent reason to drop gmail and move away from google products. I don't _want_ advertisers to know more about me.

I don't care if advertisers know more about until they can actually identify who I am (name and contact info) and start calling me, sending me emails, and mailing me directly.

Since it's not in Google's or Facebook's best interest to allow a direct connection between their advertiser's and users (if they no longer act as the proxy, where's the money?) I'm not terribly worried about it.

I would like there to be more than just a vested interest in not revealing my identity though. Something legal ensuring they take it seriously would be nice. Like being able to sue them should they mistakenly expose my identity via some third party's clever fingerprinting etc. As long as I stay anonymous and protected (from big brother etc.) though I really don't care. I just think we need more assurances that we are indeed anonymous, gov included, which currently isn't the case.

Re: Google is making a huge and annoying mistake

#112

Post by masklinn »

ajross wrote: post #96
masklinn wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They gain a bunch of people with an easy and painless upgrade path to G+ usage Do they, or do they just piss people off and result in them using their services less? When Google mandated migrating youtube accounts to G+, I just let mine rot.

Normal users don't get "pissed off" like that. There's no requirement to "use" G+ to have a youtube account. They just click "OK" and continue using youtube as before. You (and the author of the linked blog) have a bone to pick with Google, which is fine. Just recognize that most people don't care. There's nothing objectively more difficult about youtube now that it's linked to G+, ditto gmail, etc...

> There's no requirement to "use" G+ to have a youtube account.

There is no way to have a youtube account anymore, Google required creating a Google account years ago.

> They just click "OK" and continue using youtube as before.

Not really, since with this new change it won't be possible to "dislike" videos (at all) and won't be possible to "like" them without splattering your watching of lolcats onto your G+ by default.

> You have a bone to pick with Google

I "have a bone to pick with Google" because I don't like the way they go about their business and scummily attempt to force me into a service I have no interest whatsoever in?

Re: Google is making a huge and annoying mistake

#113

Post by sp332 »

cargo8 wrote: post #50

Did you consider that Google just cares about its own operations and future profitability than it does about your startup's future? Google has realized it NEEDS to have some social layer and influence integrated into its services in order to compete and not fade into the archives of the web. A much lower # of likes from identified users is MUCH more valuable to Google than millions of anonymous likes.

Google likes aren't anonymous. You needed to have an account before you could thumb-up a video already. But to get a Google+ account, you have to give them your real name, or risk having your account banned.

Re: Google is making a huge and annoying mistake

#114

Post by sp332 »

capo wrote: post #63
luser001 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His point was about requiring a login on another social network to vote on a video, when you're already logged in to Youtube. You somehow boiled it down to a discussion on the lack of a "thumbs down" button. I think you're off track here. YMMV.

What "other social network"? Google, + ,and YouTube accounts are on their way to becoming one (if they aren't already).

Google doesn't care what info you put in when you sign up for a "normal" account, they just use it to correlate interests for ads and recommendations on the site. But to sign up for Google+ you have to use your real name or risk being banned.

Re: Google is making a huge and annoying mistake

#115

Post by m0nty »

nextparadigms wrote: post #87
m0nty wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Now they complain that they want to use just one everywhere? It's almost like the Internet is lots of different people with wildly divergent opinions!

Google is one company. Would you want Apple to have 5 different payment systems, or Facebook to have 5 different Like buttons?

I really don't care. I was just pointing out that the use of collective nouns can be misleading when you're talking about what "people" said and how "they" are being inconsistent.

The rest of your point was well-made (not that I expect you to care about what I think; I'm just some random git off the Internet, after all).

Re: Google is making a huge and annoying mistake

#116

Post by nuclear_eclipse »

MaysonL wrote: post #104
jmsduran wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "It might even encourage better comments on Youtube." I don't think the move to G+ will affect Youtube comment quality at all.

Just imagining what will happen when all the Youtube commenters start posting to G+ boggles the mind.

They might actually be able to compete with Facebook then...

Re: Google is making a huge and annoying mistake

#117

Post by aggronn »

Bud wrote: post #105
joejohnson wrote: post #34

This is annoying, but how is it a huge mistake on Google's part? Sure, they're going to annoy a few people, but I think that these tactics forcing people to use G+ will probably work. People will be forced onto this G+ platform whether they like it or not; the mass exodus threats about any social networking platform never materialize into anything more than a few users deactivating their accounts.

Oh really? You mean like when everyone over age 12 threatened to leave Myspace as soon as there was something better, and then they did?

i really can't think of any company on the internet who botched and ruined everything they had more than myspace. i still don't even think they're trying to improve their product yet.

Re: Google is making a huge and annoying mistake

#118

Post by tbatterii »

jgroome wrote: post #42

G+ is a joke. Nobody outside of the tech and geek industries either wants it or uses it. And yet they carry on doing everything they can just to herd people into creating G+ accounts. Hey, it might work. Got to get those numbers up, right? But they can't make me USE my G+ account.

"The Internet is a joke. Nobody outside of the tech and geek industries either wants it or uses it. "

sometimes, things change.

Re: Google is making a huge and annoying mistake

#119

Post by jonnathanson »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #68
javajosh wrote: post #53

Google thinks it will die in the long run without social. They realize that all the tech-savvy software product in the world can be reproduced eventually, but secondary, human-savvy products, can never be reproduced. Furthermore, they see the power in adding ever more context to search - see Bret Victor's talk about how 'interaction' is bad, and inferring context is everything. There's no better context than social.…

I haven't seen a convincing argument that Google needs social. I know they believe it, I just haven't seen anything that made a compelling case that it's actually true.

Advertising is the vast majority of Google's revenue. How vast? AdWords alone accounts for 97% of Google's earnings. The strategic vulnerability of that position cannot possibly be overstated.

Along comes Facebook, which could (in theory, at least) roll out a perfectly competitive product to threaten AdWords. If social really does provide better context for advertising, and advertising within the world's prevailing social network is deemed superior to advertising within search, then Google is fucked. Some degree of 97% fucked, to be precise.

This is why Google's so feverishly obsessed with social in general, and Facebook in particular. They see this -- rightly so -- as no less than an existential threat. Now, their approach to the problem is up for debate. But the extent of the problem is, if anything, popularly underestimated.

Re: Google is making a huge and annoying mistake

#120

Post by artursapek »

tbatterii wrote: post #118
jgroome wrote: post #42

G+ is a joke. Nobody outside of the tech and geek industries either wants it or uses it. And yet they carry on doing everything they can just to herd people into creating G+ accounts. Hey, it might work. Got to get those numbers up, right? But they can't make me USE my G+ account.

"The Internet is a joke. Nobody outside of the tech and geek industries either wants it or uses it. " sometimes, things change.

That's a terrible comparison. There was no alternative to the internet that did the same things.
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