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We Need To Talk, Google

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Re: We Need To Talk, Google

#41

Post by sirkneeland »

MichaelGG wrote: post #26
quail wrote: post #6

Google is getting pushy now because they can . They've become habitual and omnipresent. Now is the perfect time. A couple of years ago I could see Google's vendor lock-in strategy unfold. I've been trying ever since to completely purge myself of Google, but it hasn't been easy. For anyone thinking of doing the same, be prepared to test many services out.

Unfortunately Android's still the only really reasonable choice. Apple and MS are far more restrictive on the devices, and nothing seems to come close to the Nexus line of devices anyways. It's pretty annoying that I can't rate apps I buy though.

Really though, try Jolla's Sailfish OS. It is a phenomenal product, and will beat Ubuntu Touch to market quite handily.

Re: We Need To Talk, Google

#42

Post by shmerl »

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.

What other altenratives are there that host video in HTML5 webm? Vimeo dropped the whole effort. This is really sick that Google forces thins G+ junk on Youtube users.

Re: We Need To Talk, Google

#43

Post by dmix »

MichaelGG wrote: post #24
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.…

>Once upon a time you could even have a Google Account associated with an e-mail address hosted elsewhere, not through Google Apps. You still can; that's the only good thing. Earlier Androids required you to have a Gmail account (I just tried a 2.3 Android phone out). So now I have a stupid, half-used Gmail account, and a separate, proper account with my own email. No way to merge them, and then no way to setup older…

Yahoo also has a competent SSO that was well integrated across products.

Re: We Need To Talk, Google

#44

Post by k3n »

AJ007 wrote: post #11

This is a good example of a "forced" or "assisted" conversion. The user really doesn't want to do it, they just want to view the damn YouTube video. Google is employing these same optimization techniques elsewhere. I've noticed very subtle, and consequently expensive, things that have been done with Adwords. There is a simple solution to this, which unfortunately castrates Google's entire platform. Its the same reaso…

FYI, you can replace "watch?v=12345" to "/v/12345" to view videos without logging in (works for age-restricted content as well). As a bonus, the video fills the browser screen, and removes all the annoying "related" content, comments, etc.

Re: We Need To Talk, Google

#45

Post by bowlofpetunias »

This is just one of the many issues with Google products these days.

I dread using anything from Google because of the confusing accounts mess, the language and localization chaos, the forced de-anonimization, the consistent ignoring of explicitly set preferences and the countless bugs in all of those.

The way I feel about using Google services today mirrors how I felt about Windows a decade ago. You start out trying to accomplish a simple task, like doing a search or watching a video, end you end up spending minutes jumping through all kinds of hoops.

Re: We Need To Talk, Google

#46

Post by darkchasma »

Felt like extortion? To freely post your video to their free hosting service, which allows you free distribution and marketing of your brand to the entire world. For free. And this felt like extortion?

Re: We Need To Talk, Google

#47

Post by S_A_P »

darkchasma wrote: post #46

Felt like extortion? To freely post your video to their free hosting service, which allows you free distribution and marketing of your brand to the entire world. For free. And this felt like extortion?

Agree- poor choice of words. I think the proper way to verbalize it is 'piss poor user experience, annoying, inconvenient'.

Re: We Need To Talk, Google

#48

Post by thatswrong0 »

sirkneeland wrote: post #34
kevingadd wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Definitely falls into the 'dark pattern' category as well.

http://www.90percentofeverything.com/2013/07/23/the-slippery...

Re: We Need To Talk, Google

#49

Post by cromwellian »

Google is simply trying to unify their services. YouTube was an acquisition, with it's own login system and social network. They don't want to maintain this separation forever, they want a single signon for everything.

Ditto for sharing and contacts. You had separate 'contacts' in Gmail, Latitude, G+, Reader, YouTube, and probably others I'm missing. Users shouldn't be prompted to maintain N different copies of this information and manage it in confusing ways.

It's a mistake to view this as "they're forcing me to use the G+ social stream". It's more "they're consolidating my 5 different profiles and authentication credentials across services."

Google could axe the social stream and this would still make sense.

Re: We Need To Talk, Google

#50

Post by raheemm »

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 moved from chrome to FF and google search to duckduckgo search after prism.
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