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Using Google without a Google+ profile

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Re: Using Google without a Google+ profile

#91

Post by LLWM »

hyperpallium wrote: post #57
AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, I think the sticking point on most of it was the Real Name policy. Had they stopped the delusion from the outset that they could be a Facebook competitor and simply made Google+ a correlating landing page for your online persona, rather than your real identity, I think it would have worked. I wouldn't necessarily mind everyone knowing that AdmiralAsshat likes Black Sabbath music videos on Youtube, hangs out…

Why did they need real names anyway? If they build a profile based on your browsing and social graph to show you ads, what does it matter who you actually are, so long as you have those interests? Like a node in a graph being distinguished only by the arcs connecting it.

One factor was an attempt to counter the GIFT (http://www.penny-arcade.com/S=0/comic/2004/03/19) by preventing anonymity.

Re: Using Google without a Google+ profile

#93

Post by eevilspock »

Aloha wrote: post #69
eevilspock wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is them finally admitting they were being evil. They put their empire and monopoly ambitions (defeat Facebook and dominate social networking as they do search and ads) ahead of the actual interests of their users.

I see this as them admitting "hey, we tried to bring our users we thought was something really great, as it turns out, they didn't agree with us so much, so now we're not going to do that anymore."

That's very generous of you. You can continue to believe that, or see that Google+ is a reaction to:

- Facebook surpasses Google for proportion of users’ time, http://businessetc.thejournal.ie/facebook-surpasses-google-f...

- Facebook surpasses Google as most visited site in US, http://www.livemint.com/Industry/ct3JSccQisManKjJ6qt43N/Face...

- Prediction: Facebook Will Surpass Google In Advertising Revenues, http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/05/facebook-will-surpass-googl...

- Facebook Readies 'People Targeting' To Take On Google In Advertising, http://www.ibtimes.com/facebook-readies-people-targeting-tak...

Has Google's search improved since the launch of Facebook? Not many people think so. Search results are loaded with spam, click-bait, content farm crap, and ever more Google's own stuff. Shouldn't a better search that found high quality results be where Google put its efforts, if it really cared about its users?

Re: Using Google without a Google+ profile

#94

Post by baby »

legohead wrote: post #79

This is confusing to me. What IS a "Google Account"? Is it my gmail? That makes no sense to me, it's an email service. A "Google Account" sounds like I work at Google. If you were to tell me I had a "Google Account", I would assume it's Google+. Google messed up when it tried to make some master account with Google+. Maybe everything could be incorporated into one account, but the way they've done it is one of the mo…

> This is confusing to me. What IS a "Google Account"? Is it my gmail? That makes no sense to me, it's an email service. A "Google Account" sounds like I work at Google. If you were to tell me I had a "Google Account", I would assume it's Google+.

It is a gmail account. Every time you are prompted to enter your google account, what do you enter? Yup, it was that simple.

Re: Using Google without a Google+ profile

#95

Post by yuhong »

frik wrote: post #55
mkozlows wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook has, and has long had, a real name policy. If you want a reason why Facebook succeeded and G+ didn't, you'll need something that's actually different between them.

G+ lost because Google forced G+ to every Google account. Post something to Youtube, you silently created a G+ post. Upload something to Picasa, you silently published the photo to your G+ newsfeed, etc. - quite toxic. And have they learned from their Google Buzz (G+ predecessor)? Nope, same behavior. I have somewhat similar feeling about the upcoming Win10 launch, and in near future a lot normal user will learn the…

I don't think Win10 is that bad. In fact I think they fixed the MS account OOBE that was bad in Win8.1, making the option to use a local account much more clear.

Re: Using Google without a Google+ profile

#96

Post by city41 »

nogridbag wrote: post #47

I find it incredibly amusing and also very frustrating that all the top comments to this article are simply G+ re-shares that add absolutely no value to the comments section and simply more garbage the reader has to sift through in order to view legit comments. >>"Google has been doing some rethinking" thanks I already read that >>"#googleplusupdate #youtube " thank you that was valuable >>[another summary of the art…

> Then finally there're all of those G+ reshares

Facebook has the same problem. Any reasonably popular feed, such as I f'ing love science has completely worthless comments, because 99% are them just people tagging their friends.

Re: Using Google without a Google+ profile

#97

Post by darklajid »

marbletiles wrote: post #5

It's incredible how lightly they have thrown away the Google+ Account For Everything stance given how merciless they were in imposing it at the time. The wails from YouTube in particular have only just died down. Kudos to them, but a lot of pain could have been avoided if they did all this listening back then, instead of waiting until their thing was clearly dead.

I'm not sure. Admitted, I'm not a fan of Google and maybe a bit grumpy, but I read this blog entry as "Now everyone will need a G+ account, but it won't have a public profile".

That said, the distinction between

  Google account

  G+ Account

  Google Profile
is lost on me, I'm genuinely confused about the past and present state of these things. It feels like "G+ Accounts" are supposed to be the new "Google Accounts"? Like you could've had a Google Account without a Google Page or Google Profile or whatever that was called?

I .. don't see what's changing. No reason to grab the pitchfork, but no reason for cheers or kudos either.

Re: Using Google without a Google+ profile

#98

Post by LLWM »

msandford wrote: post #27
chc wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your system of morality has an astonishingly low bar for "evil" if "requiring a Google+ account for access to a service" qualifies. I don't think something that harmless would go past "somewhat dickish" for most people. If that's evil, what's the word you use for people who kick puppies or otherwise cause harm to the world?

Is outing someone against their will and possibly ruining their life merely "somewhat dickish"? http://www.zdnet.com/article/google-outed-me/ I'm not saying that annoying people by forcing G+/YT integration is evil. But presuming that an annoyance to you is an annoyance to all is faulty.

No. It's not google's fault people are bigots.

Re: Using Google without a Google+ profile

#99

Post by wmeredith »

gherkin0 wrote: post #66
hyperpallium wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why did they need real names anyway? If they build a profile based on your browsing and social graph to show you ads, what does it matter who you actually are, so long as you have those interests? Like a node in a graph being distinguished only by the arcs connecting it.

I think the use of real names was identified as one of the reasons for Facebook's success[1], so they just copied that. [1] http://techcrunch.com/2008/12/17/myspace-quietly-begins-enco...

Cargo culting at its finest. Google is really smart about a lot of different things, but they know fuck-all about social. They were just going through the motions.

Re: Using Google without a Google+ profile

#100

Post by taftster »

legohead wrote: post #79

This is confusing to me. What IS a "Google Account"? Is it my gmail? That makes no sense to me, it's an email service. A "Google Account" sounds like I work at Google. If you were to tell me I had a "Google Account", I would assume it's Google+. Google messed up when it tried to make some master account with Google+. Maybe everything could be incorporated into one account, but the way they've done it is one of the mo…

Right. And this will bake your brain... Your "old YouTube" account is probably already a "Google Account".

A "Google Account" is the same as your gmail account, which is likely the same as your Youtube account. This was true before Google+ came along.

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