

Google will no longer allow private Google profiles after July 31st - tilt
http://thenextweb.com/google/2011/07/05/as-of-july-31st-all-google-profiles-will-be-public/

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Groxx
_hugely_ linkbait title (same as the article, not blaming submitter). And it
looks like it may have been something more accurate originally, note the text
of the link (to the same article) in the top 4 links:

> _No private profiles on Google ..._

Gotta wonder who pushed for this title.

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daimyoyo
According to Google[1]: "Deleting your profile won't delete your Google
Account."

Keep that in mind before you get too outraged at this.

[1][http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/answer.py?hl=en&#...</a>

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nextparadigms
A Google profile is not the same thing as a Facebook profile. You can have a
Google account without a Google profile. That's why when you delete a profile,
it doesn't mean it deletes the whole account.

Geesh, such a misleading article. Was this pushed by that Facebook PR firm
again?

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nodata
This sounds scary at first, but it seems to only apply to a profile which I
have apparently or apparently not created.

They have the default right too (unlike facebook): I don't get an automatic
opt-in, I get an automatic opt-out.

The only thing left to clarify (as mostly_harmless writes) is the connection
of a profile to other gmail services. If they get the balance wrong here,
they're done. If they don't - and they seem to be doing a pretty good job so
far.

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mostly_harmless
does this mean that you would not be able to make gmail accounts without them
being linked to your identity?

How far does this go, and what would be the visible effect on account
management with google products?

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benologist
It looks like (for now at least) Google Apps users are exempt, I get the "This
service is not available" message.

~~~
djtidau
Google apps users cannot currently create profiles. This is causing a bit of a
problem among those of us which want to use our google apps accounts on
Google+. They are looking to have this working in the coming months though.

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mooneater
Name, ok... but why "gender"?

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mdwrigh2
I suspect it's due to internationalization reasons. Even in English, we don't
really have useful singular third-person gender-neutral pronouns (yes, I'm
aware of "they", but it's actually a debated topic). In other languages where
everything has genders, there might not be a reason to have gender neutral
pronouns whatsoever.

~~~
killerswan
So what? Gender isn't relevant to every online activity.

A century ago we didn't have any gender neutral clothing, either: if we need
better pronouns, then let's make some up.

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carbonica
Perhaps Google finds asking users for their gender (which is highly correlated
with your name, anyway) to be an easier task than introducing the necessary
pronouns into every language in the globe.

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rryan
What about languages that don't have gender neutral pronouns?

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benologist
Do profiles get made automatically when you use <anything> or is this
something manual you have to do?

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ruchi
You have to create one! It picks profile pics etc which you have already
shared.

You can search your name here <https://profiles.google.com/>

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rryan
It's not true that you have to create a profile. If you want to use Google+,
you have to create a profile. If you just want to use Google
apps/search/voice/chat/etc. then no, you don't.

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pasbesoin
Are the public profiles in Google search results? (I'm assuming they are.)

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yanw
This is irresponsibly misleading. Here is the relevant text:

[http://www.google.com/support/profiles/bin/answer.py?hl=en&#...</a><p><i>If
you currently have a private profile but you do not wish to make your profile
public, you can delete your profile. Or, you can simply do nothing. All
private profiles will be deleted after July 31, 2011.</i><p>Private profiles
will be deleted not become public, the author should be ashamed.

~~~
levesque
I bet the author got exactly what he aimed for, which is a lot of traffic.
This type of news writer intentionally aims for such sensationalistic
headlines, even though they end up dis-informing people (one great example of
this is Fox news).

~~~
getone
wtf are you two talking about. The author never says anything about them
"becoming public". He just says that after the 31st, all profiles will BE
public (since they delete all private ones).

~~~
Groxx
Which, because it _doesn't_ imply any are excluded ("all profiles"), implies
all _existing_ profiles, public and private, will be public. From there it's a
pretty straight conclusion to think they'll switch existing private ones to
public. The rest of the article (actual text of release excluded) reinforces
this conclusion, and does precisely nothing to discourage it.

Of course, anyone reading the actual text of the release will understand
what's going on. But A) clearly few of the commenters there did so, and B)
they've already linkbaited their way to free advertising / ad revenue.

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madaxe
Well, that won't affect me, because I'm a paying google apps user, which makes
me a second class citizen without a profile. Good-oh.

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jeggers5
Imagine if Facebook did this. again. the world might just end.

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jeggers5
Who the hell voted me down and why. That's actually ridiculous.

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gobongo
Thanks for the self-reply. It allowed me to downvote you twice!

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jeggers5
That's just not fair at all.

