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Why I won't get a Google+ Custom URL

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Re: Why I won't get a Google+ Custom URL

#151

Post by rejoinder »

Ensorceled wrote: post #38

Why I won't get a Custom URL: > Many people have the same name. Add a few extra letters or numbers to this URL to get one that is unique for you. Why would I want yet another "MyName " identifier? How does that help friends and family remember or identify me? What purpose does it serve? I'm yet another person with a nickname that identifies me all over and has for years, I too own the domain. But Google+ keeps insist…

Yeah, it's inevitable that the Jennifer Smiths are going to get miffed. I preferred the Facebook era without vanity URLs. It seemed sensible.

You could for a time (not sure if it still works) email users on facebook by using vanity_handle@facebook.com from any email address. Which is quite useful to get back in touch with people, now that people avoid listing their email addreses in email directories (people stopped doing that because they were fed up of spam). Having said that a non-vanity identifier could probably be used in the same way, so there isn't much point.

The author of this post, wants to make a land grab for his named handle all over the web. Well that's not much better.

I worked with a client yesterday that had bought 33 alternative domain names that were similarish to their company name. Why even bother! There were many obvious name / term combinations that they had missed anyway. What a waste of money and time!

I liked his resolution of just advertising his web address, and from there people could discover other handles for other services.

It's only made things more complex with the myriad of compnay handles on different services. Adverts on TV (in the UK) now don't even list their domain name, they just advertise Facebook and Twitter handles. I personally prefer loose identifiers: 'Lucy who does ITV's weather'. Even the presenters have their Twitter handles displayed on screen now!

It is not like you are likely to remember most of these handles anyway. Even if you tried to guess one, do you use camel case, underscores, spaces etc?

There is a little UI value in having recognisable identifiers, but at the end of the day vanity URLs are about as twatty as personalised number plates.

Re: Why I won't get a Google+ Custom URL

#152

Post by rejoinder »

sp332 wrote: post #71
grecy wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I was about to go through with it anyway until I realized that doing so would require me to register a phone number with my Google account, which I have so far avoided. That requirement was the final straw That's exactly how I feel. I try very hard to not give my number out, why the hell does google force me to tell them, just to get a URL?

I think it's for Google accounts in general. Even getting a gmail account requires this.

Perhaps that's a new requirement. Some of us don't bother with mobile phones. I signed up for an account, at one time it asked, another it didn't. Try and empty your browser cache and try again.

Re: Why I won't get a Google+ Custom URL

#153

Post by rejoinder »

kibwen wrote: post #117
res0nat0r wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should Google agree to give away something to you for free forever? They are doing you and the majority of the users (who will never pay for Facebook/Google Plus/Github) a favor by providing the service without charging you a dime. They reserve the right to charge you in the future. If this changes, they will let you know.

I'm perfectly fine with paying for things! In fact, I'm ecstatic at the opportunity to pay for valuable online services. Did you miss the bit of my post where I exhort Google to "make this a paid service up-front"? But what's not cool is offering a means of universal personal identity for free (with the concomitant lock-in this entails), and then sneaking a clause into your TOS revealing your intentions to begin char…

My only concern would be the link rot that might occur if your urls are later rewritten to the new username. Which makes a mockery of having the vanity urls in the first place. Having said that I can't even work out if a single Google+ post has it's own URI, or how I find it even.

Re: Why I won't get a Google+ Custom URL

#154

Post by rejoinder »

chestnut-tree wrote: post #36

How did Google not realise when they launched Google+ that URLs that end in ridiculously long strings of numbers (107350252619396782277) was a poor idea? Now it feels like they're adding a sticking plaster to fix their initial design decision. Google+ on the whole seems quite poorly designed from a UX perspective. Most people seem to use Google+ like a blog, but the two column card layout on the desktop (three column…

I agree with most of your moans here, apart from your first. I haven't any issue with the random (probably uuids) strings and url length.

I do find G+ difficult to scan though. To the point that it's pointless for me to even bother with. I haven't loaded my circles up either, but I find the streams can get easily saturated by one individual, pretty quickly.

Another issue I have is the crappy comments - especially on public posts from popular accounts as opposed to friends' content. You open them up, start scrolling realise there is nothing of value, then wonder how you can shut them back up without scrolling back up etc.

In fact the whole thing would be far more useful if it was just one big atom-feed.

I'm following a friend's wordpress blog (an online hosted account on wordpress.com), and that's a hideous up front. I discovered RSS feeds of posts and comments hidden in the source code - and that makes for a far easier interface! Less is more and all that...

Re: Why I won't get a Google+ Custom URL

#155

Post by mxuribe »

I firmly believe that using uncontrolled urls - such as facebook, g+, etc. - on business cards, print material, or even as your established "online home" is unwise. I think its better to maintain/publish urls originating from a domain name that YOU control...And then create links (with underlying associated metadata "rel=me" style links) or setup redirects...Such as: YourDomain.com/gplus or YourDomain.com/linkedin...etc...

This leaves YOU in control. Can be done on the really cheap. And if google, fbook, linkedin, or any of these services changes things around such as urls, or UI, or ToC, or anything YOU don't agree with, then you kill the redirection/links. Quick, easy and from one central point.

Granted their sites will have a little more SEO juice up front...And, maybe I'm being idealistic, but eventually all search engines will begin to see that YOUR domain is the authoritative point on the web for YOU...and that the start point is YOUR domain not the myriad of social networks.

Re: Why I won't get a Google+ Custom URL

#156

Post by rejoinder »

cloudwalking wrote: post #23
devindotcom wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the whole YouTube thing. Having a channel, unchecking a bunch of boxes and worrying about extra policies - having an extra Google+ page with its own Talk address and inbox, in addition to the channel's inbox, etc. I just realized I don't use it, probably won't ever, and it'll only keep trying to get me to connect via other means, so I thought I'd nip it in the bud.

If you don't use it, why don't you just ignore it, like 99% of most YouTube uploaders? All of these recent Google+ changes, aside from "Real Names," only affect people with a large YouTube following. I absolutely support you deleting your YouTube account in protest of the ever-increasing Google+ requirements. But at least call it what it is--deleting your account in protest.

Actually I sympathise with the poster here. I just tried to get back to the personalised vanity chooser thing in G+, and ended up clicking on Settings then to Account, which got me to a google account page. On the right handside there is a link to a profile, and there's a nickname listed. I can't even remember what that's for or what that profile belongs to. There's even some reference to Buzz that I thought I'd killed. I go around in circles. And don't even get the whole Youtube integration thing. So I just back away from it and try and ignore it. You get overloaded. I'm not at the point of deleting my account, but not far off - mainly out of confusion.

Re: Why I won't get a Google+ Custom URL

#157

Post by bad_user »

klipt wrote: post #142
ajslater wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1993. I considered registering cocacola.com, sex.com, shell.com, etc. etc. Spent the money on consumables instead. There are few moments I remember as clearly as making that decision.

Now that people mostly use search engines instead of typing whatever.com, I imagine domain squatters don't get as much traffic. As I see it, the purpose of search engines is to route around squatters and find real content, no matter where it's hosted.

Unfortunately those same search engines are placing much importance on words that appear in a domain's name. Google at least also has a clear preference for well known TLDs, such as .com, .net and .org

The domain name is also many times your brand. So it's true that you may not type "whatever.com", but you still type "whatever". In this particular instance, "whatever.com" actually exists, but has no content on it and thus it doesn't have a high ranking. But in other cases a developer of something like "go-whatever.ly" may end up with a world of hurt.

For startups, these considerations don't even factor in the importance that investors themselves place on well picked domain names.

If you think domain names are not important anymore, you're wrong.

Re: Why I won't get a Google+ Custom URL

#158

Post by creeble »

danellis wrote: post #130
dsr_ wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Me in 1993: Yeah, but seriously, nobody is going to start charging for domain names. Writing a hundred bytes in your named.conf? What would you charge, ten cents? Doesn't make sense. And everybody swaps secondary service with everybody else, and your upstream includes it at no extra charge.

> ten cents And they started charging $70, IIRC!

$100, two years.

Re: Why I won't get a Google+ Custom URL

#160

Post by jamesbritt »

CCs wrote: post #50
jamesbritt wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sweet. But how does this work? I'm not the only James Britt on g+, but profiles.google.com/jamesbritt goes to my profile page.

It uses your gmail id. This "profile.google.com/ " is there before the Buzz time, long before Google+.

Interesting.

Some data points:

I have a few gmail accounts. One is for james.g.britt, but profiles.google.com/jamesgbritt does not resolve to the g+ page for that email address.

I also have a g+ page for james@neurogami.com (via google apps)

profiles.google.com/neurogami takes me to the g+ page for that e-mail address.

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