8 ms·

Google connects Play Store with Google+, reviews will feature name and picture

89 points by bornhuetter 14y ago

sabret00the 14y ago
I used to write reviews all the time. Mostly to help developers and help other Android users who have the same device as me. As a result of this move, I no longer write reviews in the Play Store. Great work Google, you helped everyone other than those that matter!
anon_a_mouse 14y ago
The only losers to Google's inconsiderate decision to remove choice from the consumer will be the developers... I will not be be leaving feedback now; so what next? Google gonna stop me installing 'andapps' from Play Store if I don't comply and accept their manipulation?... Google will eventually back-peddle on its decision to expose users personal details without, at least, the option not to reveal personal detail. bad_user "This is a good thing"... Your opinion only and not consensus. bad_user "and I do not agree that it is negative for users."... Your opinion only, and you do not 'speak' for others... remember your place!
glennsayers 14y ago
I actually like this. I think (hope) it will force people to put a bit more thought into their reviews. Anonymity with reviews is unproductive for the developer and brings down the quality of a store. EDIT: However when companies like Enfour publicly slate those who leave bad reviews, maybe keeping their name private is a good thing.
- sabret00the 14y ago
  I've written some fantastic reviews. Why am I being punished by an unproven notion? This doesn't help anyone. It's merely a terrible marketing ploy to further push G+.
cryptoz 14y ago
Aha! Now all developers (not just "Top Developers") will be able to communicate with their users! This is most fantastic news. It's always been frustrating for someone to leave a comment and there be absolutely no way to respond to them. This solves that handily.
- yusufg 14y ago
  Curious as to how you would communicate with a user. Do you expect to add that user to a Google+ circle and then send him/her a message. Not really a big G+ user so I'm not sure if a user can get a message from someone if they have not added them mutually to a circle
  - cryptoz 14y ago
    Good question. I hadn't really thought that far ahead yet, about the most ideal form for a developer to respond to comments - just that there finally will be a method. I suppose, first, that it depends on how Google implements this. There may be comments allowed on the comments left by users, and then the obvious move is for developers to respond there. Otherwise, I suppose the developer could make a G+ post and share it with just the person who commented, or send the user an email if that's an option.
  - haberman 14y ago
    I've sent G+ messages to people who have not added me to a circle. This is supported, just like on Facebook.
  - OriginalSyn 14y ago
    It works like twitter, you type "+username blah blah blah", if you want it to be a completely private message, remove any other people/circles in the share to box.
- masklinn 14y ago
  Alternative interpretation: > Aha! Now all developers (not just "Top Developers") will be able to harass their users!
trendspotter 14y ago
I posted this much earlier here on HN. See: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4836095 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4836095
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- trendspotter 14y ago
  It was exactly the same story that I posted 6 hours earlier than bornhuetter. I even took the time and added some more related links. Why do I get downvoted for my comment here? I don't get it.
  - brador 14y ago
    Circle of life brah, some days you're the seagull, other days you're the statue.
  - cryptoz 14y ago
    Most of us were asleep then. Read the Guidelines linked at the bottom of the page; stop complaining, that's why you're being downvoted.
  - 27182818284 14y ago
    Because it doesn't change anything and the comment alone reads very bitter and snarky.
angstrom 14y ago
If this gets accepted as de-facto standard it would mark another shift towards less anonymity on the internet or an increase in fake accounts.
nilved 14y ago
This also removes the ability for people on Google Apps accounts, which are not yet eligible for Google+, to leave reviews.
- cryptoz 14y ago
  Are you a time traveller? I think they fixed that just over a year ago. http://googleenterprise.blogspot.ca/2011/10/google-is-now-available-with-google.html http://googleenterprise.blogspot.ca/2011/10/google-is-now-av...
  - nilved 14y ago
    My understanding was that that's only available with Google Apps for Business, but that article seems to contradict that. With that said, I don't see the option to enable Google+ on my free Google Apps account.
    - DannyBee 14y ago
      Works for me. It's in additional services. The sorting places it after everything else that starts with "Google"
      - nilved 14y ago
        I don't see it there, but I probably just have it disabled or something elsewhere. I'll work it out; sorry for the misinformation.
    - zxtang 14y ago
      You can enable it in the control panel, under 'Organization & users'. It's listed as Google+ but appears alphabetically after all the other Google things.
UnoriginalGuy 14y ago
This seems positive for developers, extremely negative to users. For the developers they get more accountability and are able to talk with their users if they want more information. It also might slightly discourage some fake-negative reviews (e.g. anti-competitive reviews). For users it has all kinds of negative consequences. You will need a G+ account to review at all. You will appear in Google search results (i.e. potential employers can find that you downloaded the Angry Birds app). It will allow developers to both harass reviewers directly (via G+ messages) and indirectly (use G+ information to find them in the telephone book and call them/send them a rude letter/sue them). All in all it is a mixed bag. I think in general the response to this will be mostly negative. Blizzard tried this with their Battle.net accounts and it resulted in a massive amount of bullying, harassment, and in general problems. They were forced to pull it soon after.
- antr 14y ago
  The only way this can be positive for the users is if Google links the developers' Google+ accounts to their Apps. This way they will be held accountable too. Right now users do not know who the developers behind the Apps are (unless explicitly mentioned in their website, etc.), by linking it to the Google+ profile (here comes my WAG) developers of crappy, spammy and clone apps can be made accountable, and consequently reducing the number of overall bogus/lame apps in the Android ecosystem.
  - rkwz 14y ago
    A Google+ account can be created by anyone and for any number of times. How does this solve the bogus/virus apps problem?
  - diminoten 14y ago
    I'm trying to imagine the scenario where my app publishing history precludes me from a job, and I'm struggling.
    - Evbn 14y ago
      "Sexy Movie Stars of an Unexpected Gender Free"
forkrulassail 14y ago
Well, that removes me from their rating ecosystem.
- gulbrandr 14y ago
  Me too, I will never review an app ever again.
  - benvd 14y ago
    You're afraid people you know will be able to associate a review of a mobile app with you? Genuine question. I really cannot fathom why that would matter.
    - chokma 14y ago
      Health applications - a review for an app which allows you to record you stool consistence (for Morbus Crohn) could negatively affect your chances for employment as well as open you to ridicule by others. "You gave AcmeFamilyPlanner 4/5 stars, Mrs Candidate - say, do you want to have a career or a family?" (Hm, of course this could help remove bad employers from your list of prospective work places ;) )
      - jmillikin 14y ago
        > "You gave AcmeFamilyPlanner 4/5 stars, Mrs Candidate - > say, do you want to have a career or a family?" I am almost certain that questions like this are illegal in any nation a HN reader would want to work in.
        waterlesscloud 14y ago
        The point is that the employer wouldn't even have to ask the question. The data is now public.
        avar 14y ago
        You wouldn't ask that question, but use that information to disqualify the candidate before the interview. Just because you can't legally discriminate based on certain things doesn't mean people don't find ways to do so anyway.
sergiotapia 14y ago
I hate this centralized real-life association to a real person deal. I only use my name here on HN because I feel it's a professional outlet just as much as it is a forum for interesting articles. But I do NOT want to share personal information with some services. The Play store is one of them. This is terrible news for users.
abrahamsen 14y ago
It mirrors what they did with Google Places, when they changed it to Google Local. http://www.google.com/places/ http://www.google.com/places/
jff 14y ago
Maybe this will make people put a little more thought into their reviews than "DONT WORK UNINSTALLED" (rated 1).
bad_user 14y ago
This is a good thing and I do not agree that it is negative for users. Often I see reviews such as "love the app but it's crashing sometimes since I upgraded to ICS 2 days ago, so I gave it 1 star". Don't get me wrong, it happened to me too on my iPad when I upgraded to iOS 6, but I simply sent an email to the developers, asking them whether a fix is going to come in the next day or two and they replied back promptly that I should wait for a fix later that day. The result of this interaction was a 4-star review and a happy user. The sentiment of self-entitlement in some users is absolutely amazing, especially for free apps. I also see lots of reviews such as - "the app sucks because it displays ads and to get rid of ads you must pay". Well, if you're a cheap bastard, there's nothing wrong with that (I'm a cheap bastard too), but have the decency to stand up to your beliefs. A negative review can really damage the reputation of an app. It can be used by your competition to lower your rankings and it can be used by bored people that have nothing to do other than to piss on the work of other people. Anonymity has its place but I don't think it has a place in the app store. Many developers don't have the marketing budget of bigger companies, so they can't generate enough good reviews to bury the bad ones. Fake reviews are also harder to generate. This can't be bad for users. And contrary to what other people say, nothing is going to stop me from posting bad reviews. I can stand for my own beliefs and I don't really care if my employer or anybody else thinks otherwise. If your app sucks I'm going to tell you so. If your app is mallware I'm going to go to extreme lengths to get it blacklisted.
- pstuart 14y ago
  It's almost like we need reviews of reviews...
  - shrikant 14y ago
    Slashdot-style meta-moderation would be awesome.
    - micampe 14y ago
      the App Store has that (in the form "was this review useful?") and reviews are still worthless for the most part.
bond 14y ago
Don't know what's with people here saying will not review apps anymore. What kind of person are you? So your review is only good if you don't show your real identity?
waterlesscloud 14y ago
Why not just give the app developer the Google+ names of everyone who installs the app? Why is that different?
- recursive 14y ago
  People who install the app aren't required to rate.
viraptor 14y ago
That will definitely stop reviews from people with funny non-latin letters in their names who are still reluctant to join g+. I know they say the problem is not there anymore, but my gmail account is far more important than an app review. I can wait.
aestetix 14y ago
Ahh, back to the Google problem. There are so many issues here, and a big one is the misconception that forcing people to use their legal name (or in Google's case, their "name-shaped name") will somehow improve the "quality" of comments. Not only has that been demonstrated to be untrue[1], but it also hurts people who have quite valid reasons (including personal desire) to keep their names or personas separated. One other thing to keep in mind: it is not the name which is used that changes how you speak, so much as the context in which you speak. For example, a lot of sites started forcing "Facebook only" and noticed a change in user discussion/comments; I'd argue that this change was less the display name someone used, and more the fact that their discussion became viewable by people outside the scope of the non-Facebook website. Think about how context matters: if you are (for example) homosexual and closeted to your family, would you change what you wrote, knowing it could be shared with them? There are many many more elements to this, and yet the bottom line is I think that not only do these moves by Google reflect incompetence at the executive level and a clear disconnect with the real needs of real people, but they also demonstrate a lack of respect for the things people need most online: agency and free speech. I've spoken publicly at several conferences about this, and am now working to establish a "NymRights" working group within NSTIC, an online standards organization. If you're interested in this issue, volunteer! -aestetix [1] http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/12/30/2011123001526.html http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/12/30/2011...
Irregardless 14y ago
Just another way to artificially inflate the "daily active users" and signup numbers for Google+. Hey Larry, Google+ is dead, and it's about time you stopped ramming it down people's throats. Don't believe me? Go to a bar and tell someone you've just met to add you on Google+ when they go home. Are they done laughing at you yet? Oh, they've walked away already? Told ya so.

89 points by bornhuetter 14y ago

I used to write reviews all the time. Mostly to help developers and help other Android users who have the same device as me. As a result of this move, I no longer write reviews in the Play Store. Great work Google, you helped everyone other than those that matter!

anon_a_mouse 14y ago

The only losers to Google's inconsiderate decision to remove choice from the consumer will be the developers... I will not be be leaving feedback now; so what next? Google gonna stop me installing 'andapps' from Play Store if I don't comply and accept their manipulation?... Google will eventually back-peddle on its decision to expose users personal details without, at least, the option not to reveal personal detail. bad_user "This is a good thing"... Your opinion only and not consensus. bad_user "and I do not agree that it is negative for users."... Your opinion only, and you do not 'speak' for others... remember your place!

glennsayers 14y ago

I actually like this. I think (hope) it will force people to put a bit more thought into their reviews. Anonymity with reviews is unproductive for the developer and brings down the quality of a store. EDIT: However when companies like Enfour publicly slate those who leave bad reviews, maybe keeping their name private is a good thing.

sabret00the 14y ago
I've written some fantastic reviews. Why am I being punished by an unproven notion? This doesn't help anyone. It's merely a terrible marketing ploy to further push G+.

cryptoz 14y ago

Aha! Now all developers (not just "Top Developers") will be able to communicate with their users! This is most fantastic news. It's always been frustrating for someone to leave a comment and there be absolutely no way to respond to them. This solves that handily.

yusufg 14y ago
Curious as to how you would communicate with a user. Do you expect to add that user to a Google+ circle and then send him/her a message. Not really a big G+ user so I'm not sure if a user can get a message from someone if they have not added them mutually to a circle
- cryptoz 14y ago
  Good question. I hadn't really thought that far ahead yet, about the most ideal form for a developer to respond to comments - just that there finally will be a method. I suppose, first, that it depends on how Google implements this. There may be comments allowed on the comments left by users, and then the obvious move is for developers to respond there. Otherwise, I suppose the developer could make a G+ post and share it with just the person who commented, or send the user an email if that's an option.
- haberman 14y ago
  I've sent G+ messages to people who have not added me to a circle. This is supported, just like on Facebook.
- OriginalSyn 14y ago
  It works like twitter, you type "+username blah blah blah", if you want it to be a completely private message, remove any other people/circles in the share to box.
masklinn 14y ago
Alternative interpretation: > Aha! Now all developers (not just "Top Developers") will be able to harass their users!

trendspotter 14y ago

I posted this much earlier here on HN. See: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4836095 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4836095

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
trendspotter 14y ago
It was exactly the same story that I posted 6 hours earlier than bornhuetter. I even took the time and added some more related links. Why do I get downvoted for my comment here? I don't get it.
- brador 14y ago
  Circle of life brah, some days you're the seagull, other days you're the statue.
- cryptoz 14y ago
  Most of us were asleep then. Read the Guidelines linked at the bottom of the page; stop complaining, that's why you're being downvoted.
- 27182818284 14y ago
  Because it doesn't change anything and the comment alone reads very bitter and snarky.

angstrom 14y ago

If this gets accepted as de-facto standard it would mark another shift towards less anonymity on the internet or an increase in fake accounts.

nilved 14y ago

This also removes the ability for people on Google Apps accounts, which are not yet eligible for Google+, to leave reviews.

cryptoz 14y ago
Are you a time traveller? I think they fixed that just over a year ago. http://googleenterprise.blogspot.ca/2011/10/google-is-now-available-with-google.html http://googleenterprise.blogspot.ca/2011/10/google-is-now-av...
- nilved 14y ago
  My understanding was that that's only available with Google Apps for Business, but that article seems to contradict that. With that said, I don't see the option to enable Google+ on my free Google Apps account.
  - DannyBee 14y ago
    Works for me. It's in additional services. The sorting places it after everything else that starts with "Google"
    - nilved 14y ago
      I don't see it there, but I probably just have it disabled or something elsewhere. I'll work it out; sorry for the misinformation.
  - zxtang 14y ago
    You can enable it in the control panel, under 'Organization & users'. It's listed as Google+ but appears alphabetically after all the other Google things.

UnoriginalGuy 14y ago

This seems positive for developers, extremely negative to users. For the developers they get more accountability and are able to talk with their users if they want more information. It also might slightly discourage some fake-negative reviews (e.g. anti-competitive reviews). For users it has all kinds of negative consequences. You will need a G+ account to review at all. You will appear in Google search results (i.e. potential employers can find that you downloaded the Angry Birds app). It will allow developers to both harass reviewers directly (via G+ messages) and indirectly (use G+ information to find them in the telephone book and call them/send them a rude letter/sue them). All in all it is a mixed bag. I think in general the response to this will be mostly negative. Blizzard tried this with their Battle.net accounts and it resulted in a massive amount of bullying, harassment, and in general problems. They were forced to pull it soon after.

antr 14y ago
The only way this can be positive for the users is if Google links the developers' Google+ accounts to their Apps. This way they will be held accountable too. Right now users do not know who the developers behind the Apps are (unless explicitly mentioned in their website, etc.), by linking it to the Google+ profile (here comes my WAG) developers of crappy, spammy and clone apps can be made accountable, and consequently reducing the number of overall bogus/lame apps in the Android ecosystem.
- rkwz 14y ago
  A Google+ account can be created by anyone and for any number of times. How does this solve the bogus/virus apps problem?
- diminoten 14y ago
  I'm trying to imagine the scenario where my app publishing history precludes me from a job, and I'm struggling.
  - Evbn 14y ago
    "Sexy Movie Stars of an Unexpected Gender Free"

forkrulassail 14y ago

Well, that removes me from their rating ecosystem.

gulbrandr 14y ago
Me too, I will never review an app ever again.
- benvd 14y ago
  You're afraid people you know will be able to associate a review of a mobile app with you? Genuine question. I really cannot fathom why that would matter.
  - chokma 14y ago
    Health applications - a review for an app which allows you to record you stool consistence (for Morbus Crohn) could negatively affect your chances for employment as well as open you to ridicule by others. "You gave AcmeFamilyPlanner 4/5 stars, Mrs Candidate - say, do you want to have a career or a family?" (Hm, of course this could help remove bad employers from your list of prospective work places ;) )
    - jmillikin 14y ago
      > "You gave AcmeFamilyPlanner 4/5 stars, Mrs Candidate - > say, do you want to have a career or a family?" I am almost certain that questions like this are illegal in any nation a HN reader would want to work in.
      - waterlesscloud 14y ago
        The point is that the employer wouldn't even have to ask the question. The data is now public.
      - avar 14y ago
        You wouldn't ask that question, but use that information to disqualify the candidate before the interview. Just because you can't legally discriminate based on certain things doesn't mean people don't find ways to do so anyway.

sergiotapia 14y ago

I hate this centralized real-life association to a real person deal. I only use my name here on HN because I feel it's a professional outlet just as much as it is a forum for interesting articles. But I do NOT want to share personal information with some services. The Play store is one of them. This is terrible news for users.

abrahamsen 14y ago

It mirrors what they did with Google Places, when they changed it to Google Local. http://www.google.com/places/ http://www.google.com/places/

jff 14y ago

Maybe this will make people put a little more thought into their reviews than "DONT WORK UNINSTALLED" (rated 1).

bad_user 14y ago

This is a good thing and I do not agree that it is negative for users. Often I see reviews such as "love the app but it's crashing sometimes since I upgraded to ICS 2 days ago, so I gave it 1 star". Don't get me wrong, it happened to me too on my iPad when I upgraded to iOS 6, but I simply sent an email to the developers, asking them whether a fix is going to come in the next day or two and they replied back promptly that I should wait for a fix later that day. The result of this interaction was a 4-star review and a happy user. The sentiment of self-entitlement in some users is absolutely amazing, especially for free apps. I also see lots of reviews such as - "the app sucks because it displays ads and to get rid of ads you must pay". Well, if you're a cheap bastard, there's nothing wrong with that (I'm a cheap bastard too), but have the decency to stand up to your beliefs. A negative review can really damage the reputation of an app. It can be used by your competition to lower your rankings and it can be used by bored people that have nothing to do other than to piss on the work of other people. Anonymity has its place but I don't think it has a place in the app store. Many developers don't have the marketing budget of bigger companies, so they can't generate enough good reviews to bury the bad ones. Fake reviews are also harder to generate. This can't be bad for users. And contrary to what other people say, nothing is going to stop me from posting bad reviews. I can stand for my own beliefs and I don't really care if my employer or anybody else thinks otherwise. If your app sucks I'm going to tell you so. If your app is mallware I'm going to go to extreme lengths to get it blacklisted.

pstuart 14y ago
It's almost like we need reviews of reviews...
- shrikant 14y ago
  Slashdot-style meta-moderation would be awesome.
  - micampe 14y ago
    the App Store has that (in the form "was this review useful?") and reviews are still worthless for the most part.

bond 14y ago

Don't know what's with people here saying will not review apps anymore. What kind of person are you? So your review is only good if you don't show your real identity?

waterlesscloud 14y ago

Why not just give the app developer the Google+ names of everyone who installs the app? Why is that different?

recursive 14y ago
People who install the app aren't required to rate.

viraptor 14y ago

That will definitely stop reviews from people with funny non-latin letters in their names who are still reluctant to join g+. I know they say the problem is not there anymore, but my gmail account is far more important than an app review. I can wait.

aestetix 14y ago

Ahh, back to the Google problem. There are so many issues here, and a big one is the misconception that forcing people to use their legal name (or in Google's case, their "name-shaped name") will somehow improve the "quality" of comments. Not only has that been demonstrated to be untrue[1], but it also hurts people who have quite valid reasons (including personal desire) to keep their names or personas separated. One other thing to keep in mind: it is not the name which is used that changes how you speak, so much as the context in which you speak. For example, a lot of sites started forcing "Facebook only" and noticed a change in user discussion/comments; I'd argue that this change was less the display name someone used, and more the fact that their discussion became viewable by people outside the scope of the non-Facebook website. Think about how context matters: if you are (for example) homosexual and closeted to your family, would you change what you wrote, knowing it could be shared with them? There are many many more elements to this, and yet the bottom line is I think that not only do these moves by Google reflect incompetence at the executive level and a clear disconnect with the real needs of real people, but they also demonstrate a lack of respect for the things people need most online: agency and free speech. I've spoken publicly at several conferences about this, and am now working to establish a "NymRights" working group within NSTIC, an online standards organization. If you're interested in this issue, volunteer! -aestetix [1] http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/12/30/2011123001526.html http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/12/30/2011...

Irregardless 14y ago

Just another way to artificially inflate the "daily active users" and signup numbers for Google+. Hey Larry, Google+ is dead, and it's about time you stopped ramming it down people's throats. Don't believe me? Go to a bar and tell someone you've just met to add you on Google+ when they go home. Are they done laughing at you yet? Oh, they've walked away already? Told ya so.