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We Need To Talk, Google

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Re: We Need To Talk, Google

#31

Post by merijnv »

300bps wrote: post #30
noir_lord wrote: post #27

Google used to be the wunderkind, I remember when absolutely everything they touched was gold...and now they seem to have so much stuff that is broken across so many products. Alot of it is just dumb stuff and the rest is stuff that should have been caught. This is the last week.. Google Apps Admin Interface - It's an unnavigable mess, I use it so seldom that it's not familiarity or the lack of that makes me hate the…

Not to mention YouTube is all but unusable now. I understand that this may be local ISPs trying to kill YouTube by throttling it. But all I know is that I have a 75/35 Mbps account from Verizon FIOS and everything else is unbelievably fast but YouTube which hardly ever works anymore during peak times.

Here in the UK I've noticed that accessing YouTube directly is slow, laggy and choppy. But when I accidentally visited while using a SOCKS proxy running over a VPS in the US it was snappy. After some more testing it seems that my local ISP is indeed throttling YouTube, but their inability to look inside an SSH tunnel means I can still access it at decent speed.

Re: We Need To Talk, Google

#32

Post by nolok »

Simple1234 wrote: post #23

Yeah, the YouTube one is really bad. The pop-up really needs to be redone too. It used to be a nice easy to understand wizard and as soon as you saw it you could tell instantly you weren't interested. Now it's an awkwardly worded choice and you have to take the time to read and think about it. I might even go so far as to call it a dark usability pattern. Where's the "don't ask me again" checkbox? Personally, I like…

I'm with you on this, I had no trouble with my accounts being associated until they decided it had to mean my real name appeared on youtube. I understand why they do it given the state on comments there, but for me this is why I keep my account dissociated ever since (despite the stupid popup that keeps asking me the same question every couple of days).

Re: We Need To Talk, Google

#33

Post by Wilya »

spindritf wrote: post #12

Logging into Google and its services has always been a mess. Once upon a time you could even have a Google Account associated with an e-mail address hosted elsewhere, not through Google Apps. It was always a confusing maze of separate cross-associated accounts (YouTube, Google Account, GMail, Google Groups...) strung together. Actually, it's one of the aspects of Google's services that has clearly improved over time.…

You still can use an external email address. On register screen, I still see a "Use my existing email address" link.

I've almost never used gmail, and things work fine.

Re: We Need To Talk, Google

#34

Post by sirkneeland »

kevingadd wrote: post #18
sirkneeland wrote: post #8

Is it "evil"? No. While I agree with the author that it sucks, I feel that calling it evil dilutes the word of the power it should have when used. So much ink has been spilled on the "evil" stuff that it seems as though people's energy and attention spans are exhausted when the more "banal" stuff comes around. And so Google can get away with shoving as much G+ on us as they like. "Google, don't be banal"....more accu…

Tricking/coercing users into broadcasting their real name to the internet (through repetition, malicious UX design and just plain broken software) is actually pretty close to 'evil', since it can put some groups at risk. Less relevant for a Youtube account, perhaps, but the same criticisms of FB and G+ 'Real Names' policies apply here to Google trying to force YT users to display real names.

Okay I concede I hadn't considered that. It can definitely be upgraded to evil status then.

Re: We Need To Talk, Google

#35

Post by graeme »

lawdawg wrote: post #10

Get over it people, Google+ is the new account system for all Google products. If you don't like Google having a single account/profile system, or the fact that Google+ profiles include a "social" network product, then you best look for alternatives ASAP.

It gets confusing very fast. I have a personal account, and a Google Apps account. I did work with a company that gave me a google apps account for their domain. And my youtube business page has a Google+ profile.

It is very, very difficult to figure out how to not create duplicate Google+ profiles. There's no clear way to tell Google "This is a different email address that I, a person, use. You should link it to my personal profile".

Re: We Need To Talk, Google

#36

Post by sirkneeland »

darklajid wrote: post #20
lawdawg wrote: post #10

Get over it people, Google+ is the new account system for all Google products. If you don't like Google having a single account/profile system, or the fact that Google+ profiles include a "social" network product, then you best look for alternatives ASAP.

I try to. The single thing I struggle with? Android. Maybe Firefox OS will be interesting, iOS isn't. And .. right now I can pay for Android apps, but I'm banned from rate them, comment on them. Ignoring all the 'Do you want to be tracked to provide Better Services (tm)" stuff in that ecosystem.

You should have a look at Jolla and their Sailfish OS. Beautiful Linux system based off of MeeGo, not tied to any Google or even American servers.

Google it--wait, no. Duckduckgo it ;)

Re: We Need To Talk, Google

#37

Post by zanny »

noir_lord wrote: post #27

Google used to be the wunderkind, I remember when absolutely everything they touched was gold...and now they seem to have so much stuff that is broken across so many products. Alot of it is just dumb stuff and the rest is stuff that should have been caught. This is the last week.. Google Apps Admin Interface - It's an unnavigable mess, I use it so seldom that it's not familiarity or the lack of that makes me hate the…

Old google made cool things and make their money off ads and search ranking.

New google only cares about beating facebook because they came onto the scene and took over the front page of everyones Internet role.

I don't even think it has anything to do with bottom lines, either. I can't understand how knowing who spams my G+ page with crap who I friended for an arbitrary reason is more valuable information in how to target me with ads than what RSS feeds I subscribe to and read, which is a direct link to my interests and engagements. A social network doesn't reflect pretty much at all what I am interested in spending money on.

Re: We Need To Talk, Google

#39

Post by Wilya »

Simple1234 wrote: post #23

Yeah, the YouTube one is really bad. The pop-up really needs to be redone too. It used to be a nice easy to understand wizard and as soon as you saw it you could tell instantly you weren't interested. Now it's an awkwardly worded choice and you have to take the time to read and think about it. I might even go so far as to call it a dark usability pattern. Where's the "don't ask me again" checkbox? Personally, I like…

The "display your real name" Youtube pop-up is clearly designed to be misleading. The damn thing doesn't even have a "close" button. Nor does it have the option everybody wants to choose ("I'm not displaying my real name because I just don't want to").

Re: We Need To Talk, Google

#40

Post by sirkneeland »

noir_lord wrote: post #27

Google used to be the wunderkind, I remember when absolutely everything they touched was gold...and now they seem to have so much stuff that is broken across so many products. Alot of it is just dumb stuff and the rest is stuff that should have been caught. This is the last week.. Google Apps Admin Interface - It's an unnavigable mess, I use it so seldom that it's not familiarity or the lack of that makes me hate the…

As someone who agrees, I confess I'm actually happy that Google is no longer perfect, because that is a necessary precondition for new challengers to emerge and for the cycle of innovation and progress to begin anew. I don't know what those new companies will be, but I'm excited to find out.
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