Wow. So much anger from people here just for Google asking to create a G+ profile.
Is it really that bad?
Google is a free service that we reap a lot of benefits from. We have a lot of software engineers here. Google is indispensable followed by Stack Overflow. I highly doubt we'd be able to finish an app if Google goes down.
What's a couple of minutes to set up one?
We know that Google+ is also a way for Google to more accurately target ads. Advertising is the main source of revenue. If Google can't make enough money off advertising, it would have to shut some services down.
This is why I don't use AdBlock. If a free site is useful enough that I visit it regularly, I'll let them serve me ads.
It's starting to get silly. That's why people are angry.
I'll give you a personal example. If you do not have a Google+ account, but you have a Google account and GMail: You'll get annoying messages with "WHATS UP IN G+ DAWG" periodically and randomly.
But surely, you can unsubscribe? It's a bit obnoxious to opt-out, but hey, right? Nope! You need to "Log on Google+ to change your notification settings".
YouTube was an optionally pseudonymous social network (with subscriptions to feeds, followers, comments, etc.) built around videos. I am not a big YouTube user but I can see people who are really into the culture of YouTube being torqued about having that culture re-engineered.
Wow. So much lack of understanding about what the issue is.
I don't want my search results, the YouTube videos I watch, my mail or ANY of my Google activity to be made available either to my friends or to the general public.
With a normal Google account I could say this with certainty. But given their behaviour recently I couldn't say the same thing with a Google+ account.
Is it really that bad?
Google is a free service that we reap a lot of benefits from. We have a lot of software engineers here. Google is indispensable followed by Stack Overflow. I highly doubt we'd be able to finish an app if Google goes down.
What's a couple of minutes to set up one?
We know that Google+ is also a way for Google to more accurately target ads. Advertising is the main source of revenue. If Google can't make enough money off advertising, it would have to shut some services down.
This is why I don't use AdBlock. If a free site is useful enough that I visit it regularly, I'll let them serve me ads.