My wish for Google is different. I want it to keep interfering how I like to consume its services. I want them to keep needling me. And everyone else. I support innovation. This is the surest path to new innovation... a competitor with a better value proposition.
Yes. Google reached the point where it resembles AOL and Microsoft of the past. We now in need of a new "Google" to disrupt the toxic social ecosystem they have created.
That's not entirely accurate. I blame high turnover. When no engineer is left to fight for their pet causes, AOL and Microsoft happen. Hell I attribute MS' decline more to turnover from very key players (one could out Bill Gates himself in this camp) more than any other metric. Having been at a very small shop to see this first hand, I notice it everywhere. Places don't bother to get new developers to really care enough to take ownership anymore. Its a burden they hope magically happens and never does.
I agree with you about competition. As for Google, Reddit, etc. I have a handful of ids on each. The profile attached with my real name is quite public, and I disclose quite a bit of my life there. As for my comments that I don't want associated with my real name, well, no one is stopping me from creating ids for that. So, I don't see what all this hue and cry about Google+ is all about.
The hue and cry is because google is doing the equivalent of forcing you to link all of your different reddit identities together, so the things you did not want to disclose with your real name are now displayed with your real name, whether that is what you intended or not. Remember youtube was not always owned by google, and they were seperate IDs
You cannot retroactively create another identity to seperate them. the only thing you can do is entirely delete your google account along with your email, youtube videos, picasa albums, etc etc..
Wait until everyone with a Gmail address finds that every Youtube video they have ever viewed is now available to everyone who knows that email address.
> because google is doing the equivalent of forcing you to link all of your different reddit identities together
As someone who has lost count of all his google email ids and Google+ profiles, I'm telling you that that's just not true. They unified Google sign-ons, and that's all. You can always create another Google/Gmail id to comment "anonymously", or even make and post new videos.
they unified the signon of youtube (which was not google) with google, and coerced everyone into linking the two, and then, later, coerced everyone into retroactively making their youtube content appear with their real name.
If you don't get why this is a problem, then at least do us the kindness of not being obstructive to people who do. Figure it out. it's not hard.
It's like saying "Well, what's the problem? if you don't like it just delete all your youtube videos and discard the years of investment you've made into your youtube identity"
Google is not providing the option of having a youtube account that is not linked to a google+ account, and not providing the option of having that google+ account have a pseudonym. They are saying to all the people who are already established on youtube that the jig is up: You must reveal who you really are, now, or leave. It's an unfair ultimatum to people on youtube who have maintained anonymity for legitimate reasons.
> "Well, what's the problem? if you don't like it just delete all your youtube videos and discard the years of investment you've made into your youtube identity"
No, you don't have to delete or discard anything. Figure it out. It's not hard. And do us the kindness of not being a troll to those of us who have.
you really don't get it. the issue is not with throwaway accounts. The issue is with identities that have years of investment with them. If you want to be legit, invest time in google's products AND stay anonymous, google wants you out.
Whatever else people like or don't like about YouTubageddon, it doesn't feel "marketing driven." If anything, if feels more like consistency over experience.
The conversion to Google+ comments is voluntary on Blogger, and old comments don't get converted. Why shouldn't people posting on YouTube be able to choose between the trollish-but-established culture of YouTube or the cleaner, less pseudonymous Google+?
