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Google to end forced Google+ integration
Ladies and gentlemen, there is justice in the world.
Comments
I admit, I never did understand all the outrage about Google+
Seems like people are all to willing to complain about free stuff when they don't like the terms that come with it
Does this help?Forcing people to use their real names on the internet when they don't want to is a Bad Idea. Period. Adding on racist (as well as just plain out of touch) policies on what counts as a "real name" make it all the worse. And then they forcefully opt in anyone who uses their video website or, you know, wants to send text messages. That is not okay.
If Google+ was just "hey if you have a Google account you now have this Facebook wall thing that you're never actually going to use" nobody would care. But it's not.
Yeah, it was the anonymity. I didn't understand how it worked, so I ended up with my name on a bunch of things I didn't want. Things that I don't want people who know my real name to see.
I ended up making a separate account for those things. And it still has my real name.
I remember seeing that when it was going around Tumblr. I'm still not quite sure I understand how Google is to blame for it. If you willingly give Google your female name, you shouldn't be shocked when Google starts attaching that name to messages you send from Google's app.
Hell, I'm also a transgender woman who isn't out to everyone IRL, and I make sure I never, ever, EVER send anything from an account with my female name, Google or otherwise, unless I'm ready for the recipient to know.
As for the "real name" policy: Yeah, that was always stupid. But Facebook has the same inane rule and for some reason people don't get all ARGH BLARGH FUCK THIS the way they do with G+. It baffles me. (From my point of view, honestly, Facebook's naming is actually a bit worse, since it won't let me use an initial for my last name the way Google will.)
She didn't send anything "from a Google account", she sent a text message. From a phone. To another phone. Google then "helpfully" decided to do something totally different from that. If you want to say that she shouldn't have used any app made by Google to do that...you'd be entirely correct. That is the problem.
...No it doesn't? Facebook has never asked people for government ID because they're not named John Smith. And Facebook doesn't own half the useful services on the web. Again, nobody cares that Google+ exists (because nobody uses it). The problem is that you need for YouTube and things like that now.The thing is that "you shouldn't complain about free things" does not apply in the context of social networking. Your choice of social networks is (and must be) based on what your friends us, where the content you like is, and all sorts of other things that have nothing to do with the quality of software or the ethics of the company behind it. You can't simply say "I don't like Google, so I won't get a Google account" and be done with it if your social life takes place in a domain controlled by Google.
...using the Google+ Hangouts app, which requires a Google account.
I mean, fuck, it's got "Google+" right there in the name. What would make you think that an app that explicitly announces its connections to Google+ wouldn't use the name you attached to your Google+ profile?
I'll concede that on some phones, Hangouts is the only default texting app, but that's not the case with CyanogenMod. If she wanted to "just" send a text message, she could have used the stock Messaging app instead of the Hangouts app.
I never said they did. I said they have a rule requiring you to use your real name. Until I can name my profile something like "Alice H." or "Central Avenue" without it getting auto-rejected, I don't see how that's actually any better, government ID or no.I don't see why that's an actual problem though? Nobody's forcing you to use YouTube...
In fact, I'm not sure how the fact that it was a text message was relevant. If you choose to give Google your name, you have no right to complain when Google uses that name when you use their apps/services/websites/etc.
Giving Google your name is not a choice anymore. That's the whole fucking problem.How is it not a choice?? Who is forcing you to use Google's products?
If you don't like their rules, don't use it!
And use what instead, precisely?
I just don't see how you can possibly say that people don't have a "right to complain" when a service they've happily used for years starts destroying lives and being generally terrible.
(edit: never mind)
Again, social networking means you have to use whatever the people around you use. I had to use my Facebook account regardless of what I'd prefer since other people were using it for things I was involved with. If more people around me used G+, I'd have had to use that.
Have you like, never needed to use a particular web service because say, people in your class use it to talk about assignments, or because people you work with use it to discuss work-related things? Or do you somehow have the luxury of telling other people what they should use?
Then what exactly is it going to be?
Also yaaay now I can finally destroy my danged G+ account without fear of accidentally recreating it every time I play some Android puzzle game.
"If you don't like something, don't use it" is hard to say when everybody you want and need to contact is using it.
Or when there's a free service which you could really use and can't afford to buy it yourself.
Thank goodness I actually had a separate GMail (and thus Google+) account for like, each of my internet personas.
Somehow, Google ended up creating two different instances for my Glenn Magus Harvey persona (one called that and one called glennmagusharvey, or something like that). Not that I've used G+ for anything, other than it auto-reposting comments I make on Youtube videos.
So is there any word on when this is actually happening?
Because the end of G+ integration would be awesome, but it doesn't mean anything until it actually happens...
The whole thing was pretty much bullshit, sadly.
o wow techies slinging mud
On one side, financial gain from G+s apparent downfall (though how much of a share can an internet writer really have?) , on the other, a site that is literally G+ propaganda.
Also Facebook is explicitly a social networking site where you were expected to use your real name from the beginning, instead of retroactively attaching social networking to everything else you do where there was an expectation of privacy.
I mostly just use Google+ for Ingress-related activity, since my faction's local chapter conducts their communications on G+ and Hangouts. I don't know any that use Facebook instead, seeing as the developer of the game has strong ties with Google, hence the usage of G+ by a large plurality of players.
See, I can understand the people who are like "I don't want to give Google my real name and/or other personal information", fine
What confuses me are the people who react angrily "WHY DO I NEED A G+ ACCOUNT TO DO X" as if having a social networking thing you won't use anyway is some kind of massive affront to them
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But surely if you want to keep separate online identities, you ought to have separate accounts?
I don't really get this idea that it's reasonable to want to use a single login for all Google products but be able to maintain a separate identity on each one...
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So far Google+ hasn't caught that the name I use on it isn't real. Yet.
No I don't want to use my last name on the Internet. Look up "spokeo" and the concept of employers stalking their employees' social network presences to see why.
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It's the fact that it was scraped in the first place. Even without paying the site (as well as similar services that I'm sure exist) reveals quite a bit already, including what my home looks like.
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