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Shutting Down Google+ for Consumers

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Re: Shutting Down Google+ for Consumers

#291

Post by jpindar »

UncleMeat wrote: post #121
mindcrime wrote: post #20

LOL, one more example of why one should never depend on anything from Google. developer adoption Gee, I wonder why? Maybe because they never released a usable write API and were basically just a little less developer-hostile than Twitter? G+ had a lot of potential, had Google chosen to truly embrace Open Standards, federation, and usable API's. As it is, they shot themselves in the foot by creating JAWG (Just Another…

Is this a joke? G+ has been a laughingstock in terms of actual usage numbers for years. Nobody is using it. The fact that it was still supported is amazing. Is Google supposed to support failing products until the end of time?

By that standard, nobody uses Hacker News.

Re: Shutting Down Google+ for Consumers

#293

Post by p49k »

sctb wrote: post #273
p49k wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not a news article, though - it's a one-sided PR piece that greatly minimizes important points about the story and completely ignores other points (e.g. the regulation angle). You should have let another news story take its spot; there are plenty others that are not paywalled.

Sure thing, if there's a news article that provides additional information from its own sources and supersedes the Google post, we can update the link.

Many articles fit such a description but were “duped”. Wouldn’t it benefit the site if at least one of those were allowed to exist alongside what is essentially Google’s response? The title of this article doesn’t even convey the most important point here, which is that hundreds of thousands of users had personal data leaked; instead, it conveys the idea that Google is doing something to “Protect data” which is something that people might not care to read if they didn’t know it was related to a breach.

Re: Shutting Down Google+ for Consumers

#294

Post by javchz »

I wonder what this will affect SEO practices. I remember one of the things google had made as a small factor for search, it's the integration of Google Plus in your website. Like using the plus button.

Like what happens if I remove all google plus code related from my sites right now? My guess it's that in the short term will have some kind of negative impact, but I don't know.

Re: Shutting Down Google+ for Consumers

#295

Post by oth3r »

pjmorris wrote: post #87
8ytecoder wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a very cynical view of things. I'm not a product manager - but I can't imagine one sitting in a room thinking about all the evil ways to make the feed harder for people to find relevant posts. I can, however, perfectly imagine a PM who is "extremely numbers driven" to look a bad version of the algorithm that increases the time users spend shifting through shit and assume that the algorithm is a huge success b…

Seems to me like PM's would think in the most positive terms about the same issue, e.g. what is the maximum amount of ad space that we can use before users lose interest? No one would directly attempt to be evil, it'd just turn out that way. “The truly terrible thing is that everybody has their reasons.” ― Jean Renoir

As a PM, though not one that works at Facebook, I would probably approach it something like, how do we ensure that our users stay interested in the homepage, coming back as often as possible and staying on it as long as possible?

There are lots of other sites competing for attention, and to sacrifice a good UX would be shortsighted, especially with all the “FB is dead” comments people have been making the last few years.

Re: Shutting Down Google+ for Consumers

#296

Post by btown »

pjmorris wrote: post #87
8ytecoder wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a very cynical view of things. I'm not a product manager - but I can't imagine one sitting in a room thinking about all the evil ways to make the feed harder for people to find relevant posts. I can, however, perfectly imagine a PM who is "extremely numbers driven" to look a bad version of the algorithm that increases the time users spend shifting through shit and assume that the algorithm is a huge success b…

Seems to me like PM's would think in the most positive terms about the same issue, e.g. what is the maximum amount of ad space that we can use before users lose interest? No one would directly attempt to be evil, it'd just turn out that way. “The truly terrible thing is that everybody has their reasons.” ― Jean Renoir

And, to be sure, many will justify it by saying "by maximizing this revenue, we're able to provide even more services that people love for free." Is it a Faustian bargain if practically everyone is begging to be Faust?

Re: Shutting Down Google+ for Consumers

#297

Post by ma2rten »

_uhtu wrote: post #6

Google+ had terrible marketing and release, but it had some decent ideas that I wish other networks had carried over. The idea of "circles", where you had a circle for "acquaintances" "friends", "family" would be great on, say, Facebook, as it would allow me to filter down my feed to just the people I really care about but still have a connection to more distance acquaintances. Currently on Facebook the news feed is…

I disagree.

I think Google+ had great marketing and release. Good enough to create a social network with 300 million monthly active users out of thin air.

However the product did not provide enough value for people to keep using it. The circles idea was good, but the improvement is too incremental. I am also wondering if the average user really understood that idea and cared enough to put in the effort to separate their contacts.

Re: Shutting Down Google+ for Consumers

#298

Post by jpindar »

pc86 wrote: post #40
ben174 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that was by design. Trying to sweep it under the covers to avoid outrage. I share that article with friends and they're likely to read the first half of the headline and not bother reading it.

Serious question, is anybody going to be outraged by sunsetting G+?

I know a lot of people in various Open Simulator related communities who are extremely unhappy about it, and are desperately searching for a replacement. Is that close enough?

Re: Shutting Down Google+ for Consumers

#299

Post by Latteland »

Marazan wrote: post #285
Marazan wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google+ failed because of Real Names. It was a catastrophic misjudgement that killed the platform at birth.

Wow, found the 3 people on the Internet who thought Real Names was a good idea.

What? Your reply to your own posting contradicted yourself?

Re: Shutting Down Google+ for Consumers

#300

Post by _qbxp »

I posted this on the other discussion related to this, but would love to get feedback here.

----------------- I can understand this position, but I'd be curious what your thoughts are on how to best (I realize there is no perfect) keep your data private from snooping employees, hackers, or law enforcement.

I've thought about this over and over, and it's hard to come to a solid conclusion about keeping personal data safe (in this context I mean emails and files you may store in the cloud, not browsing history, social media posts, etc.). There are so many options with downfalls for each, and I'm not a security expert. So every time I get excited about trying a new service geared towards privacy, or setting up my own instances, inevitably somebody points out the terrible pitfall in it and I get discouraged.

1. Don't use the internet or internet services, period. 2. Use services who market themselves as geared towards privacy. 3. Use regular cloud options, but stack stuff on top - VeraCrypt volumes or Cryptomator with Google drive, GPG for email, etc. 4. Host your own services - i.e. a Nextcloud 14 instance on EC2 with an S3 backend, then use client-side E2E 5. Spread what you do out over multiple services - FastMail for email, DropBox for cloud storage, Standard Notes for notes, etc. I know there will never be a consensus on this, but I'd love to hear what your thoughts are on the best way to keep my personal files and notes personal to me. Let's assume I'm not a target of any spy agencies or whatnot, but I want to make it very, very difficult for anyone to read my person notes and files but me.

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