Google+, Privacy, Market Share & ... Masculinity?

[Recusant]

About a month and a half ago, in the "What's on your mind today?" thread, DeterminedJuliet mentioned Google+.  At that time, joining was by invitation only.  Now, all one needs is a Google account apparently.

I just came across an interesting piece on the growing pains that Google+ is going through:

From Anxious Masculinity Under Threat: Google+ and Diversity, part 6:

Google+'s naming policy isn't failing because it's poorly implemented, or because Google's enforcement team is stupid. It's failing because what they're trying to do is (1) impossible, and (2) antisocial.

– Bob Blakley, Google+ Can Be a Social Network Or The Name Police — Not Both,
Gartner Blog Network

I wonder what folks at Google thought of Chairman Eric Schmidt's description of Google+ as an "identity service" which requires people real names? So friendly! So out of sync with what they've been telling the media! So ... creepy!

It's hard to see this going over well in the rest of the world, where everybody is sooo eager to share their personal information with a US company so that it's subject to the PATRIOT Act. And here in the US, Gartner is only the latest to point out how destructive this is for Google+.

Despite its imperfections Google+ was on track for being a grand slam, taking a big chunk of audience from Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and yes even Quora.* And now? The joy of the brilliantly-executed launch has dissipated. Passionate early supporters are now so anti-Google that they're switching to Duck Duck Go and even Bing.

"Data-driven"?

"Operational excellence"?

How embarrassing.

Anxious masculinity under threat

Basically, any situation in which a group of less privileged people makes critiques or observations of the dominant group in a way that threatens to upset the dominance of that group, to change the established order somehow, or to at least make the established order seem less virtuous, normal, and inevitable, is a situation in which the tone argument gets pulled out.

– Sheila Marie on "the tone argument"

Continues...

As I say, I thought this was fascinating stuff, and I thought I'd share it with you all. I'm still working through all the links which are included, and trying to digest the ideas and the basis of the controversy, so I haven't formed an opinion on this yet.

[Tank]

^^^ thanks for that, most informative. I haven't gone to Google+ yet, is it any good? Facebook appears to be reacting.

[Whitney]

imo google+ is not going to beat out fb anytime soon.  I have a google+ account and never use it.  Friends who said they were going to abandon fb for google+ never did or came back. 

I also found it odd that you had to click on the circles a message would be posted to instead of being able to let it default to all connections.  Not to mention that I don't share much online that I wouldn't be at least somewhat comfortable being public knowledge; so there is no need for me to have circles other than to segregate out a few conservative family members if I were to want to discuss something a little bit too controversial for them to handle civilly (and I tend to just take those kind of topics to the forum instead).

[Sweetdeath]

Oh, silly google, stick to being a great search engine and email account.

Seriously, everyone is trying to be a social network now. Gmail even has a skype type program.  I find it pointless.
I did try to join g+, but they were always full capacity.

[Tank]

Oh, silly google, stick to being a great search engine and email account.

Seriously, everyone is trying to be a social network now. Gmail even has a skype type program.  I find it pointless.
I did try to join g+, but they were always full capacity.

Business, marketing, shareholders and greed prevent Google from staying Google or any public company from remaining what they start out as. The nack is to evolve within expectations and experience. Apple did it, IBM eventually managed it, and Microsoft is fucking up royally trying to do it.

[Sweetdeath]

I know. The worst  example is youtube before the creators sold it to google.  It was so much more open and free!   Now everything is illegal upload this, coyright infringment that...   Ugh,i stopped uploading my AMVS years ago.

[Recusant]

If I were going to give Google+ a whirl, I would first create a new Google account solely for that purpose. I've been following the links in the article I quoted in the OP (a lot of entertaining stuff in there, by the way; links from the linked pieces are good too) and one of the earlier ones I encountered (linked from a linked article) was a story about the policy that Google has adopted. If you don't use a name that they think is "real" you will receive a notice:

From "Google Plus: Too Much Unnecessary Drama," by Violet Blue (that's her real name, but Google didn't like it):

The G+ notice told me I had just over a day before being locked out. There was no option on the notice to explain that I was, in fact, already complying with the policy.

I was guilty until proven innocent.

When you get your account suspended on Google Plus, you lose Google Reader, your Google Profile (it is deleted from Google search) and any Picasa photos and photo albums.

As somebody who uses several Google products, this has given me pause...

[DeterminedJuliet]

I have to say, Google+ has come to disappointment me And I had such high hopes.