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What happened to "don't be evil"? The criticism is a bit thick, but the prompts to join G+ are increasingly manipulative and gimmicky, designed almost entirely

What happened to "don't be evil"? The criticism is a bit thick, but the prompts to join G+ are increasingly manipulative and gimmicky, designed almost entirely to _trick_ the user to into signing up + spamming their gmail contacts. A requirement to have G+ account to make youtube comments is just one part of a greater trend that includes: 1. Requiring a G+ account to review Android apps in the Play store 2. Cunningly worded join prompts for first-time Android users when they start up their new Android device(s) You know G+ is an abysmal failure when the Page & Co has to force it on users of google's other services. C'mon bro, what gives? The moral superiority narrative that the valley likes to perpetuate vis-a-vis more traditional industries like banking, etc. is increasingly laughable and absurd. Let's be real tech bros and broesses. Bidness is bidness.

hahainternet 13y ago
> You know G+ is an abysmal failure when the Page & Co has to force it on users of google's other services. C'mon bro, what gives? They literally have been explaining this for nearly a year. There's no such thing as a G+ account and a 'Google Account'. They are the same things. I think if anything what this has proven is that you cannot rely on your customers to read the slightest thing from you, but if you change how they expect things to work, they will get incredibly angry even if the service is totally free. Even if you are IMPROVING the service you will get anger. Moral of the story: Don't have many customers.
- ancarda 13y ago
  No. Moral of the story is "Don't fuck around". I like my YouTube account. I don't like Google+. Stop forcing it on me. I'd be happy with a YouTube that doesn't let me comment but let's me upload videos and everything else I'm doing now. Instead, I'm packing up and leaving. The irony is your moral might just work. Google will end up with less and less customers if they keep behaving in this way. Only people willing to tolerate Google+ will be left. Maybe that's what they want.
  - twistedpair 13y ago
    I guess you're not on FB either, or you'd be upset that half the websites you join want you to sign up with FB Connect. Similar with Apple's services. Single shot services are growing few and far between on the web.
    - lmm 13y ago
      If a site requires facebook, I won't use it. If a site where I previously had an account forces me to shift to signing in with facebook, you bet your ass I'm leaving.
  - hahainternet 13y ago
    > I like my YouTube account. I don't like Google+. Stop forcing it on me. I'd be happy with a YouTube that doesn't let me comment but let's me upload videos and everything else I'm doing now. Instead, I'm packing up and leaving. Literally nobody cares. > The irony is your moral might just work. Google will end up with less and less customers if they keep behaving in this way. Only people willing to tolerate Google+ will be left. Maybe that's what they want. I hope so! I can only imagine if Youtube was as full of interesting content as G+, and not so filled with people whining that a terrible terrible system isn't being kept soley for their own preferences.
    - ancarda 13y ago
      Is this how you treat your customers?
      - hahainternet 13y ago
        For the most part yes. There are always naysayers, always conservatives. If you listen to them, no progress can ever be made. You have to decide on a course and take it. Ultimately, if integration with Google ruins Youtube, then a competitor will eviscerate them. If it ultimately improves it, the criticisms will fade away.
        13y ago
- ringdabell 13y ago
  > There's no such thing as a G+ account and a 'Google Account'. They are the same things Thats not the case if you registered for a google service (i.e. gmail) pre G+, which I imagine includes a TON of users. If you fall into this category (like me) and don't have a G+ account (i.e. a "Public Profile), you get spammed like crazy and constantly asked to join up. And the service isn't free. I'm paying for it with my user information. Let's be real, Google isn't some savior upon high blessing us with "free" services from the goodness of their hearts. Be honest. btw I'm a huge fan of Google, I just find their hyprocracy of "we're not a cunning business trying to maximize profits, we're a social enterprise saving humanity, that just happens to make money" annoying and insulting. We need to get rid of this narrative that creators = god and users = proles that don't have the "right" to complain.
  - hahainternet 13y ago
    > Thats not the case if you registered for a google service (i.e. gmail) pre G+, which I imagine includes a TON of users. If you fall into this category (like me) and don't have a G+ account (i.e. a "Public Profile), you get spammed like crazy and constantly asked to join up. Right, because they're amalgamating the accounts. They've been telling people this forever. > And the service isn't free. I'm paying for it with my user information No you're not. It's free. > We need to get rid of this narrative that creators = god and users = proles that don't have the "right" to complain. Who said anything about creators. They /OWN/ Youtube. They have made it /VERY/ clear what is happening. If you want to ignore that that's up to you, but you can't turn around and act as if it's some inexplicable weird move that makes no sense when they have detailed every step of it.
    - ringdabell 13y ago
      >No you're not. It's free. Nothing is free bro. Business 101. >Who said anything about creators. They /OWN/ Youtube. They have made it /VERY/ clear what is happening. If you want to ignore that that's up to you, but you can't turn around and act as if it's some inexplicable weird move that makes no sense when they have detailed every step of it. No one is saying its a weird move. I'm just arguing that the WAY they are doing it is extremely annoying and not very user-friendly. You shouldn't have to have a public profile or be forced to share your comment on youtube. It's obviously advantageous from a google perspective, but not very user-friendly. The value of G+ should incentive the user to want to share their comment. Google shouldn't FORCE you to do it. That's not very friendly/flexible.
- kybernetyk 13y ago
  > even if the service is totally free In my experience they get especially angry if the service is free. :)
- 6d0debc071 13y ago
  > They literally have been explaining this for nearly a year. There's no such thing as a G+ account and a 'Google Account'. They are the same things. Now, yes, and some people don't like that. Of course it's 'free' for whatever that's worth - and you can do whatever you want. Just don't expect that people are going to be thrilled. Free doesn't buy you free approval.
Shooti 13y ago
There's no post API and all sharing is done manually so spamming anyone with G+ is impossible unless you actively use it. I think what they're effectively trying to do boils down into unifying the Google account: instead of every Google product maintaining its own divorced account/sharing infrastructure they're effectively retconning all of their products so they're now all based off one source, the Google+ Profile. This allows any change they make to the underlying G+ architecture to instantly propagate across all their products, as well as much more effective user data collection. The problem is while the setup has plenty of benefit to Google, they've barely explained the benefit to the user.
- icebraining 13y ago
  There's no post API and all sharing is done manually so spamming anyone with G+ is impossible unless you actively use it. That's a little naive. Of course there's an "API", it's what your browser uses to post something. Just because it's not designed for automated programs it doesn't mean it can't and won't be used.
  - goostavos 13y ago
    Yeah, too true. A quick strole through the internet "freelance" boards will show that there's no shortage of people looking for comment bots for all of the major platforms.
aryastark 13y ago
> What happened to "don't be evil"? That died long ago. In 2008 or even earlier, Google was capturing data from your WiFi router with their street view cars.

hahainternet 13y ago

> You know G+ is an abysmal failure when the Page & Co has to force it on users of google's other services. C'mon bro, what gives? They literally have been explaining this for nearly a year. There's no such thing as a G+ account and a 'Google Account'. They are the same things. I think if anything what this has proven is that you cannot rely on your customers to read the slightest thing from you, but if you change how they expect things to work, they will get incredibly angry even if the service is totally free. Even if you are IMPROVING the service you will get anger. Moral of the story: Don't have many customers.

ancarda 13y ago
No. Moral of the story is "Don't fuck around". I like my YouTube account. I don't like Google+. Stop forcing it on me. I'd be happy with a YouTube that doesn't let me comment but let's me upload videos and everything else I'm doing now. Instead, I'm packing up and leaving. The irony is your moral might just work. Google will end up with less and less customers if they keep behaving in this way. Only people willing to tolerate Google+ will be left. Maybe that's what they want.
- twistedpair 13y ago
  I guess you're not on FB either, or you'd be upset that half the websites you join want you to sign up with FB Connect. Similar with Apple's services. Single shot services are growing few and far between on the web.
  - lmm 13y ago
    If a site requires facebook, I won't use it. If a site where I previously had an account forces me to shift to signing in with facebook, you bet your ass I'm leaving.
- hahainternet 13y ago
  > I like my YouTube account. I don't like Google+. Stop forcing it on me. I'd be happy with a YouTube that doesn't let me comment but let's me upload videos and everything else I'm doing now. Instead, I'm packing up and leaving. Literally nobody cares. > The irony is your moral might just work. Google will end up with less and less customers if they keep behaving in this way. Only people willing to tolerate Google+ will be left. Maybe that's what they want. I hope so! I can only imagine if Youtube was as full of interesting content as G+, and not so filled with people whining that a terrible terrible system isn't being kept soley for their own preferences.
  - ancarda 13y ago
    Is this how you treat your customers?
    - hahainternet 13y ago
      For the most part yes. There are always naysayers, always conservatives. If you listen to them, no progress can ever be made. You have to decide on a course and take it. Ultimately, if integration with Google ruins Youtube, then a competitor will eviscerate them. If it ultimately improves it, the criticisms will fade away.
      - 13y ago
ringdabell 13y ago
> There's no such thing as a G+ account and a 'Google Account'. They are the same things Thats not the case if you registered for a google service (i.e. gmail) pre G+, which I imagine includes a TON of users. If you fall into this category (like me) and don't have a G+ account (i.e. a "Public Profile), you get spammed like crazy and constantly asked to join up. And the service isn't free. I'm paying for it with my user information. Let's be real, Google isn't some savior upon high blessing us with "free" services from the goodness of their hearts. Be honest. btw I'm a huge fan of Google, I just find their hyprocracy of "we're not a cunning business trying to maximize profits, we're a social enterprise saving humanity, that just happens to make money" annoying and insulting. We need to get rid of this narrative that creators = god and users = proles that don't have the "right" to complain.
- hahainternet 13y ago
  > Thats not the case if you registered for a google service (i.e. gmail) pre G+, which I imagine includes a TON of users. If you fall into this category (like me) and don't have a G+ account (i.e. a "Public Profile), you get spammed like crazy and constantly asked to join up. Right, because they're amalgamating the accounts. They've been telling people this forever. > And the service isn't free. I'm paying for it with my user information No you're not. It's free. > We need to get rid of this narrative that creators = god and users = proles that don't have the "right" to complain. Who said anything about creators. They /OWN/ Youtube. They have made it /VERY/ clear what is happening. If you want to ignore that that's up to you, but you can't turn around and act as if it's some inexplicable weird move that makes no sense when they have detailed every step of it.
  - ringdabell 13y ago
    >No you're not. It's free. Nothing is free bro. Business 101. >Who said anything about creators. They /OWN/ Youtube. They have made it /VERY/ clear what is happening. If you want to ignore that that's up to you, but you can't turn around and act as if it's some inexplicable weird move that makes no sense when they have detailed every step of it. No one is saying its a weird move. I'm just arguing that the WAY they are doing it is extremely annoying and not very user-friendly. You shouldn't have to have a public profile or be forced to share your comment on youtube. It's obviously advantageous from a google perspective, but not very user-friendly. The value of G+ should incentive the user to want to share their comment. Google shouldn't FORCE you to do it. That's not very friendly/flexible.
kybernetyk 13y ago
> even if the service is totally free In my experience they get especially angry if the service is free. :)
6d0debc071 13y ago
> They literally have been explaining this for nearly a year. There's no such thing as a G+ account and a 'Google Account'. They are the same things. Now, yes, and some people don't like that. Of course it's 'free' for whatever that's worth - and you can do whatever you want. Just don't expect that people are going to be thrilled. Free doesn't buy you free approval.

Shooti 13y ago

There's no post API and all sharing is done manually so spamming anyone with G+ is impossible unless you actively use it. I think what they're effectively trying to do boils down into unifying the Google account: instead of every Google product maintaining its own divorced account/sharing infrastructure they're effectively retconning all of their products so they're now all based off one source, the Google+ Profile. This allows any change they make to the underlying G+ architecture to instantly propagate across all their products, as well as much more effective user data collection. The problem is while the setup has plenty of benefit to Google, they've barely explained the benefit to the user.

icebraining 13y ago
There's no post API and all sharing is done manually so spamming anyone with G+ is impossible unless you actively use it. That's a little naive. Of course there's an "API", it's what your browser uses to post something. Just because it's not designed for automated programs it doesn't mean it can't and won't be used.
- goostavos 13y ago
  Yeah, too true. A quick strole through the internet "freelance" boards will show that there's no shortage of people looking for comment bots for all of the major platforms.

aryastark 13y ago

> What happened to "don't be evil"? That died long ago. In 2008 or even earlier, Google was capturing data from your WiFi router with their street view cars.