And of course, outraged and harmed by this you proceeded to stop using Google services. They are paying for it by acting in a way you find distasteful, so of course you will show them by no longer using their services.
Or ... are you using their services while moaning about it? No, I'm sure you wouldn't do that.
I've never understood this condescension and self-righteousness towards those who complain about a service yet still use the service. It's as if complaining about a business you patronize is childish or petty.
Why does anyone think that? It's often economically rational for a customer to say "I'd like to continue using your product/service, but I have a specific complaint about it."[1] That's what all these posts about Google+ are doing.
It's not like anyone's shouting "We need to pass laws against this, right now!" Nobody is questioning Google's legal and moral right to force Google+ on us. Rather, people are saying it's a poor choice and Google's part, and it annoys customers.
[1] These issues are discussed in Exit, Voice, and Loyalty:
The basic idea is that an aggrieved consumer can either take their business elsewhere, which is termed "exit," or try to change the company's behavior through things like the OP's blog post, which is termed "voice." Customers sometimes choose voice as their first recourse, and if things get worse or don't improve, the customers sometimes exit.
When it comes to social media, people rarely "exit" when they're very dissatisfied. A few people do, but most of the ones who are displeased with changes in the service respond by shifting some of their previous uses of it to other services while continuing to use it in different or more reduced ways.
For example, people mostly didn't leave Facebook after getting the message that Facebook is bad for privacy, but in the early days of Facebook I could find nearly every single one of my friends' phone numbers and home addresses on their profiles, and the "phone book" feature was very useful. Now, hardly anyone puts their address there, only a minority put their phone numbers there, and the "phone book" feature is mostly forgotten (I don't even know if they've removed it, I haven't looked for it in a couple of years at least). What kinds of photos people post, and how much they share, has changed a lot over the years, but most of the people who pulled back in this way didn't delete their accounts, and still post material there when they don't care much if it "leaks".
I've observed a similar thing with Google services over the past couple of years. People pull back by shifting some of their activity to other providers, while continuing to heavily use Google.
Re-read the original article. When someone writes with such extreme language about a transaction they've apparently gotten value out of - then fail to even mention the idea of exit, then I suppose my response will let a little condescension and self-righteousness seep through.
Your inability to understand that is just not relevant.
The reason you are being downvoted to oblivion (as you should be) is that your entire argument is a red herring.
Whether the author continues to use Google services is utterly and completely irrelevant. The point of contention here is the sleazy way Google re-activates a service for them after they have explicitly disabled it. If your answer to this dilemma is to stop using Google services altogether, then I'm sorry but you just lost all credibility and will not be taken seriously.
Why? I try to use Google services as little as possible because I feel like they don't respect my privacy. I think it's reasonable that people who bitch and moan about Google but refuse to seek alternatives (they're out there!) are a part of the problem, not a part of the solution.
>>I think it's reasonable that people who bitch and moan about Google but refuse to seek alternatives (they're out there!) are a part of the problem, not a part of the solution.
Only if you think blaming the victim is reasonable.
Look, everyone knows that alternatives to Google exist. The problem here is that Google has pulled a massive bait and switch on its entire userbase. They started as a company that put its users first, and over time turned into one that tries to extract as much money from users as possible. And while it is possible to switch to other services, for a lot of people and companies this involves a significant time investment as well as an upheaval of processes and resources.
Heck, as a single individual, my Gmail address is listed in at least 25 different locations. Remembering what those are and then changing them alone would take me hours. And then there's static documents with my email address on them - resumes, cover letters, business letters, business cards, and more. Finally, there is the question of whether my new email provider offers integrated solutions for instant messaging, content sharing and collaboration, calendar, and more.
Basically, Google is a monopoly -- not in the sense of market-share but rather in terms of the completeness of their offering, and they are abusing the shit out of this. That's what's making people angry, and they have every right to be angry.
It's more the cognitive dissonance of believing one thing while seeing invalidation of that belief right in front of you. For a while it will be "this must be a mistake" before it gets to "Hmm, I guess I interpreted their motivations much differently than they actually are, time to move on."
To its credit, Google has a couple of fecal units worth of dashboards and data about retention and quality so somewhere there is a chart where the line has started to go flat, perhaps even down. Questions will be raised, bonuses will be put into jeopardy, and eventually a new consensus or messaging will be reached. It will be interesting to see if the company has reached the point where its ability to respond yet fatally trails the markets ability to change. Every company seems to get to that point eventually.
Moving off Google is not as hard as I thought it would be. I expect to only be using maps and Zagat in the near future, but this will be anonymous, the rest has been replaced.
1. Finally got my Google+ deleted. The reason I even had one to begin with was that Google forced it on me.
2. Started using DuckDuckGo, took about a month to get used to, but I am starting to like it more and more, not sure if I would go back to Google even if they weren't info vamps.
3. I could migrate to another email provider, but I am waiting it out for a bit longer to see what interesting alternatives pop up in the wake of this. But at that point, forwarding and phasing in a new email should be relatively easy.
4. Waiting it out with messaging, but will definitely move of GTalk/Hangouts for non-work.
I don't have anything to hide from Google, but their pushy approach is making me sick. It is just not worth doing business with people like this.
2) I've also switched to DDG, but I still find that google gives me somewhat better results for things related to programming are academics. Apart from that, I like DDG a lot.
3) That's the big, big problem for me. I could stop using virtually any other product labelled google without problem (ok, youtube excluded), but gmail keeps me there. Not so much that gmail itself is so great (it is good, for sure), but the act of switching emails, updating contacts left and right, is just a pain.
4) it seems to me that most providers for hangout/video type of things are equally obnoxious with the way they handle your data..
Going back to the email stuff, I guess I'm also waiting for a decent alternative to pop up, as I'm not inclined to switch 10 times in the next 6 months..
One note here, if you're using Google Apps, moving should be a breeze as you can just change your MX records. However, hosting your own email could be painful.
For me it is especially great since my primary email is an alias domain on Google Apps, which means i can move my primary email off of google apps while keeping my google account working (also grandfathered into their free plan).
So switching email is just the matter of picking my own host. That could take a while, however.
For 3: email forwarding + vacation autoresponse help a lot. You get the messages anyway and whoever emails you gets an automatic reply with your new contact information.
I find DuckDuckGo to be a nice alternative to Google, although I have to switch to google.com for certain searches.
As for email - if I can not connect with IMAP, I am still using the plain old HTML web interface for GMail. The new one has too much clutter. But I am also searching for an alternative with good uptime.
As such, Gmail is the only thing that keeps me connected with google. Any alternatives?
An Android device running Cyanongenmod (or another AOSP ROM) without any Google services is still an excellent phone. You can get pretty much any app you need from F-Droid or the Amazon app store.
Or, you continue using their services since they are the best value available, but also complain and point out problems you have with it. I think Google is happiest with this option, so they at least know what their users complain about.
I hear you. But I will point out that they are often just the default option not necessarily the best available.
I learnt that when they stopped supporting their news reader. It forced me to look at what had been out there all along, but I had simply not looked because their reader was good enough. They taught me in this way to look for alternatives that are often better.
Google isn't any more evil than they have ever been - they are however huge and it's almost certain that some aspect of what they do will rub lots of people the wrong way.
I don't avoid them like the plague, but I also don't stick to services I don't like and I suggest as much as I can seeking out alternatives.
If you don't like being the product that is sold, leave. If you like the trade for the value you get, than it's worked out well for you. I can't blame them for making an offer you chose to accept.
>> But I will point out that they are often just the default option not necessarily the best available.
That seems like the optimal place for Google to be. Aware of its user's complaints, but also aware that they haven't moved on, as well as what alternatives are being brought up.
I agree on some level, but you also can't say that this is a great thing. All these extreme opinions...
Can't we all just agree that Google is pretty great, but going through an annoying phase right now? Google _is_ taking advantage of the fact that most users won't leave, and I don't appreciate that. But at the same time, we are all slowly losing our patience, and in the long run this behaviour could hurt Google. I hope for everyone's sakes that this all settles down.
Is the only right of expression in your world is whether to use a service or not? Why should people be forced into silence if they don't like something? This seems especially relevant in a world where services are increasingly integrated.
I have started the painful migration from google slowly, we hate change but I am doing it slowly. This is what I am using as a replacement:
Gmail----> back to my old yahoo account
> Or ... are you using their services while moaning about it? No, I'm sure you wouldn't do that.
It makes a lot more sense to moan about something you use than to moan about something you don't. For example, I don't moan about how bad Katy Perry's album is because I don't own that album. I don't moan about how uncomfortable the seats in my old car were because I don't drive it anymore. I do moan about poor pick-up time estimates at a restaurant I frequent because I am actually their customer.
The idea that you should only complain about things you don't use is bizarre.
I've personally started removing myself from google services one baby step at a time. The whole spying and g+ thing has really left a bad taste in my mouth. They just don't seem interested in not creeping me out.
When you've been relying on a service for a while and the TOS suddenly change it seems fair to complain: OP would have probably picked a different service if he knew.
Or ... are you using their services while moaning about it? No, I'm sure you wouldn't do that.