Google will no longer allow private Google profiles after July 31st

http://thenextweb.com/google/2011/07/05/as-of-july-31st-all-google-profiles-will-be-public/

by tilt • 15 years ago

41 35 15 years ago

thenextweb.com

mostly_harmless• 15 years ago

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?

benologist2• 15 years ago

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

djtidau• 15 years ago

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.

capnrefsmmat• 15 years ago

The article says:

>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'd assume this means you can make Gmail accounts not linked to your identity so long as you don't make a Google Profile.

benologist2• 15 years ago

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

ruchi• 15 years ago

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/

rryan2• 15 years ago

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.

Groxx4• 15 years ago

They're very explicit when you're creating it. If you read any text on your screen, you can't miss it.

mooneater2• 15 years ago

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

mdwrigh2• 15 years ago

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• 15 years ago

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.

callahad• 15 years ago

Google isn't (yet) using it for selecting pronouns and/or they don't seem to have a problem using "their" as a neutral pronoun: http://i.imgur.com/1B5rT.png

rachelbythebay• 15 years ago

They'll claim it's for customization of prompts ("His photos", "her updates"), but that's a cop-out. Think of the possibilities when you can sell such demographic details to your advertisers. Now it should start making sense.

buro9• 15 years ago

gender is actually highly sensitive for a lot of people as well, especially being forced into male/female buckets (which are actually sex and not gender).

There's a world of pain for them in this.

kylemaxwell• 15 years ago

Just verified, they have an "Other" selection. This isn't forcing anyone into a bucket.

nodata• 15 years ago

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.

jeggers53• 15 years ago

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

pilgrim689• 15 years ago

Shhhh, you're on HN. Google is the be all end all. Look how they gather in denial.

jeggers53• 15 years ago

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

gobongo• 15 years ago

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

calloc• 15 years ago

And private profiles will be deleted. You are getting down voted because you are making this out to be a bigger issue than it is.

daimyoyo• 15 years ago

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&#...

nextparadigms• 15 years ago

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?

Groxx4• 15 years ago

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.

yanw• 15 years ago

This is irresponsibly misleading. Here is the relevant text:

http://www.google.com/support/profiles/bin/answer.py?hl=en&#...

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.

Private profiles will be deleted not become public, the author should be ashamed.

levesque• 15 years ago

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• 15 years ago

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).

madaxe• 15 years ago

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.

Google will no longer allow private Google profiles after July 31st

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