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Why I won't get a Google+ Custom URL

blog.vrypan.net

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

#91

Post by amakaruk »

This is based on inductive reasoning:

This process is heading toward a time when your online identity corresponds directly to your personal ID. This will create a debate between at least two sides:

1. Privacy rights activists will argue that tech companies are complicit with the NSA and that we should fear totalitarianism and a police state's repression.

2. Others will argue that this verisimilitude between the online self and the material self provides for security and convenience.

On the one hand you have those that value freedom and on the other hand you have those that value convenience.

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

#92

Post by carrot »

Wow, I didn't know that. I got the same e-mail and went all the way through with this exact same processor for one of my "pages". When I think about it, I don't really care as much about that G+ page as the other related social networking profiles, but this would still affect me if it were enforced at some point in the future. Well, I made the change, unlike you. Score one for actually reading the TOS.

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

#93

Post by riffraff »

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.

it's not, it asks for one but you can omit it, even though it will keep bugging you about it from time to time.

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

#94

Post by scholia »

rallison wrote: post #79
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 actually like a lot of the UX, at least for the content that I consume. I enjoy viewing content in some of the photography and photo sphere groups, and for this a one column layout would be too wide without scrolling quite a bit more. Now, that said, this is more casual consumption. I don't care if I miss a post or two due to your chronological post issue. I also imagine there are a number of people like me when it…

Hidden menus that pointlessly jump out into the oceans of unused space. Half-hidden photo and a hidden search box that bobs pointlessly up and down. Clunkily-unusable Circles. Endless pages that make it impossible to access old content (Facebook does this much better). Porthole icons. Pointlessly disappearing notification system. Mouseover popups that sometimes pop up (but don't contain any useful information) and sometimes don't pop up (compare "Community invitations" with "You may know").

The whole thing is full of utterly useless bits of "design". Some of these may contribute to making it horribly slow, though I'm sure there are other reasons why it's so bloated....

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

#95

Post by riffraff »

josteink wrote: post #76

I have a name which is 100% unique in the world. There are no other people with my combination of first name and last name. Not in my ØÆÅ country. Not on the planet. None. Not making this up. It's a unique one. Certifiably. And Google has the balls to ask me to create a Google+ URL with lots of numbers and gibberish added? What? They can just seriously fuck off.

as a data point, to me it simply proposed +GabrieleRenzi, which may be unique in g+ but is certainly not unique worldwide (heck, there are at least 4 people named like me on facebook).

So maybe they just decided that something like "€∂gàr sm0ll" should be considered the same as "edgar small" ?

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

#97

Post by viraptor »

davidjgraph wrote: post #17

Here's how it works. The techies create something. The legals come along and say, OK, to release that in the wild it needs some T&Cs that cover our arses for everything and then some, because people keep sueing us. In practice, would Google ever dare invoke this on a large scale? No, you know that. Yes, there should be some transparent process that is undertaken if yours were revoked, but Google only like stuff that…

> In practice, would Google ever dare invoke this on a large scale?

Twitter has already done that on a number of primary usernames, rather than just vanity urls. Did you expect them to do that? Do you think Google is better?

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

#98

Post by ilyanep »

sp332 wrote: post #64
mrb wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I have no idea why they cling to this." Not saying that I agree or disagree with Google, but they have explained their reasoning here: "It's recommended that you go by your first and last name because it will help you connect with people you know and help them find you." - https://support.google.com/plus/answer/1228271?hl=en

For most people it won't be first and last name. It will be first and last name followed by a bunch of junk, which isn't easy to remember.

Furthermore, my name is very hard to remember the spelling of in English. This is why I go of a shortened version of my fullname, but Google isn't okay with this <_<

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

#99

Post by kolev »

Google's decision is stupid: they make one person happy and a gazillion others with the same name - pissed off. I'm not sure if any business wants to be in this position. I'm boycotting it as I have the proper username with Twitte, Facebook, LinkedIn - you name it. Why would I want to be something that doesn't represent me on Google+? Sorry, but we have choices and only a small portion of my friends use Google+ anyway. Poor choice, Google - if you started in the beginning, it would have been a good choice, but it's a bit too late for such nonsense. I still have not been offered a vanity name anyway and a bunch of people with a couple of friends were. You either do at for all at once or you don't at all. People take it as fair if somebody was first to register it. People think it's unfair when Google decides.

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

#100

Post by markdown »

grecy wrote: post #46
kibwen wrote: post #45

I noticed the same clause in the TOS last week and was taken aback. Ideally I'd love to be able to distribute my Google+ URL with the same confidence as I distribute my email address: namely, if you send a message to this address, you can guarantee that I'm the one who receives it. The fear here is that, should Google start charging for this "service" in the future, and should I decline to play along, someone else co…

> 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?

So you don't have two factor authentication set for your Google account(s)?
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