5 ms·

Click this link to opt out of Google's shared endorsements program

146 points by easytiger 13y ago

evadne 13y ago
I use Google Apps and the box is unchecked by default: “Based on your domain's current settings, your name and profile picture will not appear in shared endorsements paired with ads. If your domain administrator changes this in the future, your choice here will be honored.”
sanxiyn 13y ago
I opted out. Thanks.
jzelinskie 13y ago
mine defaulted...off ?
- Heliosmaster 13y ago
  if you had already the +1 sharing disabled, then also this is disabled by default
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
kintamanimatt 13y ago
It's great that Google are giving a way to opt out but I'm really struggling to see why this is something bad. Such endorsements are only shared with people you're sharing stuff with anyway, and if I saw a friend had "endorsed" a business that was displaying an ad I'd actually pay attention to that.
- barrkel 13y ago
  I have a different view of '+1'. I see it more like an indicator that I like something, to be seen by the people who make the thing I like, so they know it's good. I don't particularly want to share that with anyone.
  - oakwhiz 13y ago
    This is interesting because I think way too many different meanings are attributed to a single social action. If someone posts a good news story about a current event that you disagree with, should you like or dislike the news story? A lot of HN folks would probably like (or upvote) the story, but some people, especially in other communities like YouTube, have a reversed view on this, and will use the dislike button to express a negative emotion even if they actually thought the video was good. For this reason I'm actually surprised that significant advertising value can be mined from data about +1s and likes. I wonder if we need more expressive "single-button" social interactions, like some kind of hybrid between tags and likes. At the very least, some kind of way to express to the computer, and to friends, that you want to promote some piece of content (or censor it) while simultaneously disagreeing/agreeing with the idea presented in the content.
    - bsullivan01 13y ago
      For this reason I'm actually surprised that significant advertising value can be mined from data about +1s and likes. The value might be just to get the person to click on an ad, and pad up this quarter's revenue, right before Christmas. Of course if ad clicks go up, unpaid traffic from unbiased Google goes down even more.
  - riquito 13y ago
    Aren't you misinterpreting the effect of +1? +1 makes publicly available the fact that you like something, so you are saying "I want to share with the world that I like this thing"
    - barrkel 13y ago
      If I want to share something with the world, I'll post it on twitter, facebook, my blog, the off-topic mailing list at work, or another relevant forum for sharing with the people I think may be interested in that thing. There is no context, zero, wherein I want to share anything with everyone; and I'm certainly not going to categorize contacts into "circles" etc. FTR, I think I've clicked on +1 buttons perhaps three times, and all of them were in Google Reader. That also had a sharing feature, which is the thing I used when I wanted to share the article. Mostly I used the +1 to add to the existing like count for any given article - and as I said, that wasn't often. In so far as +1 is for sharing, that's how much I don't use it.
- bsullivan01 13y ago
  Nice try, I bet you drunk some GKoolAid. You +1 a company, say HP, because you bought Laptop XYZ. Now Google has been cutting unpaid traffic to everyone with their gimmicks http://i.imgur.com/mhJhc5W.png http://i.imgur.com/mhJhc5W.png and Google's own spam so many more are forced to advertise. HP advertises on Google, Desktop ABC and since you +1-ed them, your friends will click on it, thinking you bought that desktop (about half are unlikely to know they clicked on an ad, they'll think it's an unbiased Google result). Now there's absolutely no reason to believe that Google or HP care if your friends got the best computer for their money, Google wants their ad money and HP is in the business of selling computers at margins as high as they can. In essence, you are helping Google scam your friends. Why isn't Google letting your friends see the websites you ranked but only ads? To make them more likely to click on ads. Almost always advertisers advertise the product they make the most on, and the cost of advertising is tacked on to the price.
  - krelian 13y ago
    >Now there's absolutely no reason to believe that Google or HP care if your friends got the best computer for their money, Google wants their ad money and HP is in the business of selling computers at margins as high as they can. You seem to be convinced that all business is just one big scam. I wonder what you do for a living? >Why isn't Google letting your friends see the websites you ranked but only ads? To make them more likely to click on ads. Well I certainly think they wouldn't add this feature had they thought it will drive down the click rate but immediately approaching this as if it were a conspiracy to get some extra clicks while users figure it's a scam is just that, a conspiracy. In the long run it just doesn't make sense for google to display results that are not relevant to visitors and they know that.
    - bsullivan01 13y ago
      Really? Have you seen Google's search results lately? You have to scroll quite a bit to see organic results, and they have done quite a bit so users mistake ads for content. That's one big scam and it coincided with (IMO) another scam, major penalties on websites to cut their unpaid traffic. I don't care for what Google says, I look at what it does. You should too: http://ho9od35yvs05ejqn.zippykid.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Google-Adwords-HD-Monitor.jpg http://ho9od35yvs05ejqn.zippykid.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/u... http://ppcblog.com/fbf0fa-now-you-see-it%E2%80%A6or-maybe-not/ http://ppcblog.com/fbf0fa-now-you-see-it%E2%80%A6or-maybe-no... http://moz.com/blog/mega-serp-a-visual-guide-to-google http://moz.com/blog/mega-serp-a-visual-guide-to-google Trying hard to drive clicks to the best sites, right ?
- DanBC 13y ago
  > but I'm really struggling to see why this is something bad. Partly it's the backlash against all the privacy invasions recently. People realised that all the minor privacy creeping leads to a situation where you can't do anything without it being very public. They should have been making a fuss when the systems were being set up, but they dismissed the privacy-advocates as tin foil hatters and conspiracy nuts. Some people are saying they are opting out and never plus one anything. That's fine. I'm going to do the opposite and plus one everything. I might even find a Firefox plugin to do it for me. Every page I'm on, click +one for everything. Spider pages linking to those pages ad plus one those too. Spider pages from popular news sites and plus one those as well.
  - kintamanimatt 13y ago
    > People realised that all the minor privacy creeping leads to a situation where you can't do anything without it being very public. Okay, this is an argument that could resonate with me, and an angle I hadn't thought about. However, I still struggle to see how a public expression of liking something (a +1 is just that, as are reviews) is a bad thing. It's only shared with people you permit too. It's well known that these are not private notes to oneself and I really can't see how this could be inch-by-inched to something egregious.
    - ronaldx 13y ago
      A public expression of liking something does not typically give the company permission to use your endorsement as part of a commercial presentation.
      - kintamanimatt 13y ago
        It does if the TOS says so and the TOS isn't in violation of the law! I'm really having a hard time wrapping my head around the uproar. If I've +1'd something or written a review I can't see the problem with that being used next to an ad. If I were an advertiser I'd be quite happy for +1s and socially relevant positive reviews to be displayed next to my ad because I know they'd increase click-thru rates, and possibly even conversion rates too. Generally, I actually really like the idea of this. If I saw something that said ronaldx and 77 others +1'd this and I thought you had good taste, I'd probably be more likely to check it out. Conversely, if I thought your taste sucked I'd also be grateful to know that you liked it! There's one hitch in this ride though: I have a Google Plus account but I don't use it and don't tell people about it, so I'm not going to be seeing these recommendations.
- DanielBMarkham 13y ago
  "I'm really struggling to see why this is something bad" Let's say you are famous person X. Would you want Google giving out your endorsements to people and making money from doing it? Probably not. So why is it okay if you're just some schmuck? Our opinions and thoughts have value. Online providers are feasting on our thoughts and actions and turning it all into some kind of version of a radio promotional spot. If your life is a piece of merchandise, then maybe it doesn't matter. Or perhaps you're not that important. But many others have done the math and it is important to them. So I guess the real question is: how much do you value your thoughts?
  - kintamanimatt 13y ago
    What difference does it make if I'm famous and +1 something or write a review online about something because I have an opinion? What's the difference between choosing to +1 something and writing an unsponsored tweet or blog post? Why is it okay to write a review on Yelp (and have them profit from it) but not +1 something? I appreciate other people can make money from my reviews and endorsements and really I have no problem with that because in theory I get value in return by way of my friends' recommendations. 9/10 it's the reviews that make or break my decision to buy something or go somewhere, and I give as freely as I receive even in the knowledge that some third party is profiting too. Nobody's up in arms about Amazon or GoodReads profiting from reviews on their site. I don't see why this is any different.
    - DanielBMarkham 13y ago
      It's not any different. I think you need to decide whether or not you want your opinions to be a product for somebody else to sell or not. If you're happy being a Google/Amazon/Facebook/Yelp drone, go for it. Do you really need explicit endorsements from your friends in order to buy things? Or does getting them just make it easier for merchants to sell to you? Who is getting the benefit here? I personally don't believe it's an even trade. Other opinions vary.
      - kintamanimatt 13y ago
BenderV 13y ago
It's cool to have this option. But it disturbed me. I feel like it's a way to shut off the protest (a small small minority of interested persons)... It feels like it's a choice now, but the reality is not really... my sister, my parents, will never go on the options, and will never defaulted it. The choice is disconnected with the impact, thus making it kind of invisible. "By default" is a small, but commons dark patterns.
cientifico 13y ago
You can opt-out easily if you don't click any +1. And on any case, What is the problem? If I like something, I don't care if people know that I like that. Of course If you want to build a virtual profile of your self, and you are afraid that the people discover how you really are, I can understand, but on that case, the problem is yours, not google's.
- cbr 13y ago
  A "like" or "+1" is similar to a vote. There's lots of cases where we have private votes: Reddit, HN, politics. I don't mind these being public, and actually had already thought they were, but I can see how other people view it differently.
r0h1n 13y ago
I love the way Internet cos, led by Facebook and now Google are progressively conditioning us to different interpretations of online privacy. First it was "Like or +1" anything you like. Don't worry, it's all private. Then it was, everytime you "like or +1" something, we'll tell all your "friends". Soon, the definition of friends was enlarged to mean "people who you may know or are in some circles", effectively broadcasting your "likes and +1s" to tens of thousands of people. Finally our "likes and +1s" are now considered public endorsements, and fair game for being portrayed as advertisements (minus any compensation to us of course). I stopped using Facebook "likes" a year back, and deleted my Facebook account a few months ago. As for Google+, I signed up briefly when it launched but then promptly closed it. I've never +1-ed anything, and never will.
- filestar 13y ago
  The real name policy on Google+ makes more sense now and makes it seem as if this was the plan from all along. Endorsements from internet pseudonyms are less recognizable and look weird/fake.
- abraham 13y ago
  The +1 button announcement specifically says "share recommendations with the world" and the messaging around +1's has always been clear that they are public and associated with your identity. > Today we’re taking that a step further, enabling you to share recommendations with the world right in Google’s search results. It’s called +1—the digital shorthand for “this is pretty cool.” To recommend something, all you have to do is click +1 on a webpage or ad you find useful. These +1’s will then start appearing in Google’s search results. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/1s-right-recommendations-right-when-you.html http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/1s-right-recommendati... > 1 is as simple on the rest of the web as it is on Google search. With a single click you can recommend that raincoat, news article or favorite sci-fi movie to friends, contacts and the rest of the world. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/1-button-for-websites-recommend-content.html http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/1-button-for-websites...
fthssht 13y ago
In a world where everyone is famous to 15 people on their news feed google plus etc. Now everyone can do what celebrities do and endorse products. But we get to not get compensated. If someone famous had this happen to them it would be a clear violation of their rights to publicity. The law needs to be updated so this applies to everyone.
fthssht 13y ago
Let's not forget how easy it is to accidentally click those fucking buttons too which are everywhere
- TillE 13y ago
  Seriously. I can at least block them on my desktop browser, but I've accidentally hit that button a few times on the Android store. It's just a symptom, though. The whole modern conception of "social networking" can't die soon enough.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
anuraj 13y ago
Your evil, sinister plans - Oh Devil (Google)!
Shenglong 13y ago
It's not that bad once you read into it. It's not bad at all. Google displays my recommendations to my friends, and since I only really like/+1 things I would recommend, it seems natural, and maybe even convenient. Unfortunately, the crux of the issue may lie in consumer protections. While you and I may know exactly what we're endorsing, the average consumer probably does not. The average consumer probably also does not understand that their friends also do not. Otherwise, we wouldn't see so many "FREE $500 COSTCO GIFTCARD - CLICK HERE" posts on Facebook. TL;DR: While I haven't formed a cohesive opinion about this, the problem with endorsements lies in the average case--not in the best case.
- james-skemp 13y ago
  Agree 100% which is why I visited the page but didn't opt out after reading the page. I assume that what I +1 is public and act accordingly. But for those that don't, which is surprisingly a lot of young people, nice that this option exists.
- agarden 13y ago
  My thoughts were similar. I only +1 or Like things I am genuinely endorsing, and it's cool with me if the company gets good publicity in consequence. That's kind of the point. I wouldn't +1 something I did not want to give good publicity. So I almost left it on. Then I realized that I had no control over the content of the ad and there was no guarantee that what the ad said had anything to do with my reasons for +1'ing. Nor am I likely to go back and retract my +1 (can one do such a thing?) later if the company goes to the dark side. So I opted out.
spdy 13y ago
Im just curious for me i was opt out to begin with. But it looks like many are not? I still have this voice in my head from Eric Schmidt "With your permission ...", "If you opt-in". So they start to abandon the opt-in ship and we now have to keep up with every sharing/ad-feature they add throughout the whole Google ecosystem to keep the little privacy we still have?
- johnpowell 13y ago
  They sent me a email earlier today. "The changes to the Terms will be effective as of November 11, 2013. If you do not take any action, the Shared Endorsements setting will be turned on." I imagine many people won't read the email.
  - Samuel_Michon 13y ago
    Is that even legal? I’m not allowed to send my customers email newsletters without them opting in[1], how is Google allowed to sell its users’ information without opt-in? Can a company suddenly decide to change its terms, without its customers’ permission? [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAM_Act_of_2003 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAM_Act_of_2003
loop0 13y ago
Mine was already off by default
chmars 13y ago
Why is an opt-out necessary? I followed the link and it seems to be opt-in: http://i.imgur.com/qrJNQtk.png http://i.imgur.com/qrJNQtk.png
- tty 13y ago
  The option seems to have been enabled by default at least on some Google accounts.
  - chmars 13y ago
    It would be interesting to know why the option is enabled by default for some (most?) Google accounts and why it isn't for some (few?) Google accounts.
- Samuel_Michon 13y ago
  If that checkbox was already checked when you got to that page, it’s opt-out, not opt-in.
  - chmars 13y ago
    The checkbox was not already checked, i.e., it's opt-in for me. But it seems that for most users, it's opt-out. I agree, however, that my screenshots shows the checkbox checked. The reason is that I want to mark the line for clarity. By double-clicking the line in Chrome, the checkbox got checked. Without the line marked, the checkbox was unchecked: http://i.imgur.com/cas6SMB.png http://i.imgur.com/cas6SMB.png
jwr 13y ago
Or you could just opt out of Google+. I deleted my Facebook and Google+ accounts about a year ago, deciding that the benefits I was getting from them were not worth the hassle and the privacy concerns. The benefits, incidentally, after I thought about them carefully, could be classified as "chewing gum for your mind". Neither social network enriched my life in any meaningful way. Both consumed a lot of time that could be much better spent elsewhere (for example, in this Hacker News discussion... oh, wait).
jftuga 13y ago
How can I tell if I have a G+ account? I have GMail and YT accounts, but just not sure about G+.
mknits 13y ago
I never created G+ account. It saved and continue to save a lot of time.
elliottkember 13y ago
Actually, this link took me to a "Sign up for Google+" page. This is because I opted out of a Google+ account, so it's to be expected, but, considering the title, it's ironic.
DanBC 13y ago
I'd be interested to see if the legal aspect of model releases and using someone's image with their implied, not explicit, consent.
zjelveh 13y ago
i'm opting out. but not necessarily because of privacy reasons, but because I think I should be compensated for helping sell someone's product. where's my cut?
PaperclipTaken 13y ago
This might actually be a better way to advertise on the internet. My biggest qualm with advertising is that in almost every case, the product being shoved into your face is not the best product for you needs, it's the product with the better marketing plan, which has little correlation to the actual value of the product. With endorsements, it's more likely that I'll get advertised products that suit my needs, because I'll get more advertised products that people who are similar to me have endorsed. It still doesn't remove the marketing budget factor, but it may more strongly correlate the things that are advertised to me with the things that best fit my needs.

146 points by easytiger 13y ago

I use Google Apps and the box is unchecked by default: “Based on your domain's current settings, your name and profile picture will not appear in shared endorsements paired with ads. If your domain administrator changes this in the future, your choice here will be honored.”

sanxiyn 13y ago

I opted out. Thanks.

jzelinskie 13y ago

mine defaulted...off ?

Heliosmaster 13y ago
if you had already the +1 sharing disabled, then also this is disabled by default

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

kintamanimatt 13y ago

It's great that Google are giving a way to opt out but I'm really struggling to see why this is something bad. Such endorsements are only shared with people you're sharing stuff with anyway, and if I saw a friend had "endorsed" a business that was displaying an ad I'd actually pay attention to that.

barrkel 13y ago
I have a different view of '+1'. I see it more like an indicator that I like something, to be seen by the people who make the thing I like, so they know it's good. I don't particularly want to share that with anyone.
- oakwhiz 13y ago
  This is interesting because I think way too many different meanings are attributed to a single social action. If someone posts a good news story about a current event that you disagree with, should you like or dislike the news story? A lot of HN folks would probably like (or upvote) the story, but some people, especially in other communities like YouTube, have a reversed view on this, and will use the dislike button to express a negative emotion even if they actually thought the video was good. For this reason I'm actually surprised that significant advertising value can be mined from data about +1s and likes. I wonder if we need more expressive "single-button" social interactions, like some kind of hybrid between tags and likes. At the very least, some kind of way to express to the computer, and to friends, that you want to promote some piece of content (or censor it) while simultaneously disagreeing/agreeing with the idea presented in the content.
  - bsullivan01 13y ago
    For this reason I'm actually surprised that significant advertising value can be mined from data about +1s and likes. The value might be just to get the person to click on an ad, and pad up this quarter's revenue, right before Christmas. Of course if ad clicks go up, unpaid traffic from unbiased Google goes down even more.
- riquito 13y ago
  Aren't you misinterpreting the effect of +1? +1 makes publicly available the fact that you like something, so you are saying "I want to share with the world that I like this thing"
  - barrkel 13y ago
    If I want to share something with the world, I'll post it on twitter, facebook, my blog, the off-topic mailing list at work, or another relevant forum for sharing with the people I think may be interested in that thing. There is no context, zero, wherein I want to share anything with everyone; and I'm certainly not going to categorize contacts into "circles" etc. FTR, I think I've clicked on +1 buttons perhaps three times, and all of them were in Google Reader. That also had a sharing feature, which is the thing I used when I wanted to share the article. Mostly I used the +1 to add to the existing like count for any given article - and as I said, that wasn't often. In so far as +1 is for sharing, that's how much I don't use it.
bsullivan01 13y ago
Nice try, I bet you drunk some GKoolAid. You +1 a company, say HP, because you bought Laptop XYZ. Now Google has been cutting unpaid traffic to everyone with their gimmicks http://i.imgur.com/mhJhc5W.png http://i.imgur.com/mhJhc5W.png and Google's own spam so many more are forced to advertise. HP advertises on Google, Desktop ABC and since you +1-ed them, your friends will click on it, thinking you bought that desktop (about half are unlikely to know they clicked on an ad, they'll think it's an unbiased Google result). Now there's absolutely no reason to believe that Google or HP care if your friends got the best computer for their money, Google wants their ad money and HP is in the business of selling computers at margins as high as they can. In essence, you are helping Google scam your friends. Why isn't Google letting your friends see the websites you ranked but only ads? To make them more likely to click on ads. Almost always advertisers advertise the product they make the most on, and the cost of advertising is tacked on to the price.
- krelian 13y ago
  >Now there's absolutely no reason to believe that Google or HP care if your friends got the best computer for their money, Google wants their ad money and HP is in the business of selling computers at margins as high as they can. You seem to be convinced that all business is just one big scam. I wonder what you do for a living? >Why isn't Google letting your friends see the websites you ranked but only ads? To make them more likely to click on ads. Well I certainly think they wouldn't add this feature had they thought it will drive down the click rate but immediately approaching this as if it were a conspiracy to get some extra clicks while users figure it's a scam is just that, a conspiracy. In the long run it just doesn't make sense for google to display results that are not relevant to visitors and they know that.
  - bsullivan01 13y ago
    Really? Have you seen Google's search results lately? You have to scroll quite a bit to see organic results, and they have done quite a bit so users mistake ads for content. That's one big scam and it coincided with (IMO) another scam, major penalties on websites to cut their unpaid traffic. I don't care for what Google says, I look at what it does. You should too: http://ho9od35yvs05ejqn.zippykid.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Google-Adwords-HD-Monitor.jpg http://ho9od35yvs05ejqn.zippykid.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/u... http://ppcblog.com/fbf0fa-now-you-see-it%E2%80%A6or-maybe-not/ http://ppcblog.com/fbf0fa-now-you-see-it%E2%80%A6or-maybe-no... http://moz.com/blog/mega-serp-a-visual-guide-to-google http://moz.com/blog/mega-serp-a-visual-guide-to-google Trying hard to drive clicks to the best sites, right ?
DanBC 13y ago
> but I'm really struggling to see why this is something bad. Partly it's the backlash against all the privacy invasions recently. People realised that all the minor privacy creeping leads to a situation where you can't do anything without it being very public. They should have been making a fuss when the systems were being set up, but they dismissed the privacy-advocates as tin foil hatters and conspiracy nuts. Some people are saying they are opting out and never plus one anything. That's fine. I'm going to do the opposite and plus one everything. I might even find a Firefox plugin to do it for me. Every page I'm on, click +one for everything. Spider pages linking to those pages ad plus one those too. Spider pages from popular news sites and plus one those as well.
- kintamanimatt 13y ago
  > People realised that all the minor privacy creeping leads to a situation where you can't do anything without it being very public. Okay, this is an argument that could resonate with me, and an angle I hadn't thought about. However, I still struggle to see how a public expression of liking something (a +1 is just that, as are reviews) is a bad thing. It's only shared with people you permit too. It's well known that these are not private notes to oneself and I really can't see how this could be inch-by-inched to something egregious.
  - ronaldx 13y ago
    A public expression of liking something does not typically give the company permission to use your endorsement as part of a commercial presentation.
    - kintamanimatt 13y ago
      It does if the TOS says so and the TOS isn't in violation of the law! I'm really having a hard time wrapping my head around the uproar. If I've +1'd something or written a review I can't see the problem with that being used next to an ad. If I were an advertiser I'd be quite happy for +1s and socially relevant positive reviews to be displayed next to my ad because I know they'd increase click-thru rates, and possibly even conversion rates too. Generally, I actually really like the idea of this. If I saw something that said ronaldx and 77 others +1'd this and I thought you had good taste, I'd probably be more likely to check it out. Conversely, if I thought your taste sucked I'd also be grateful to know that you liked it! There's one hitch in this ride though: I have a Google Plus account but I don't use it and don't tell people about it, so I'm not going to be seeing these recommendations.
DanielBMarkham 13y ago
"I'm really struggling to see why this is something bad" Let's say you are famous person X. Would you want Google giving out your endorsements to people and making money from doing it? Probably not. So why is it okay if you're just some schmuck? Our opinions and thoughts have value. Online providers are feasting on our thoughts and actions and turning it all into some kind of version of a radio promotional spot. If your life is a piece of merchandise, then maybe it doesn't matter. Or perhaps you're not that important. But many others have done the math and it is important to them. So I guess the real question is: how much do you value your thoughts?
- kintamanimatt 13y ago
  What difference does it make if I'm famous and +1 something or write a review online about something because I have an opinion? What's the difference between choosing to +1 something and writing an unsponsored tweet or blog post? Why is it okay to write a review on Yelp (and have them profit from it) but not +1 something? I appreciate other people can make money from my reviews and endorsements and really I have no problem with that because in theory I get value in return by way of my friends' recommendations. 9/10 it's the reviews that make or break my decision to buy something or go somewhere, and I give as freely as I receive even in the knowledge that some third party is profiting too. Nobody's up in arms about Amazon or GoodReads profiting from reviews on their site. I don't see why this is any different.
  - DanielBMarkham 13y ago
    It's not any different. I think you need to decide whether or not you want your opinions to be a product for somebody else to sell or not. If you're happy being a Google/Amazon/Facebook/Yelp drone, go for it. Do you really need explicit endorsements from your friends in order to buy things? Or does getting them just make it easier for merchants to sell to you? Who is getting the benefit here? I personally don't believe it's an even trade. Other opinions vary.
    - kintamanimatt 13y ago

BenderV 13y ago

It's cool to have this option. But it disturbed me. I feel like it's a way to shut off the protest (a small small minority of interested persons)... It feels like it's a choice now, but the reality is not really... my sister, my parents, will never go on the options, and will never defaulted it. The choice is disconnected with the impact, thus making it kind of invisible. "By default" is a small, but commons dark patterns.

cientifico 13y ago

You can opt-out easily if you don't click any +1. And on any case, What is the problem? If I like something, I don't care if people know that I like that. Of course If you want to build a virtual profile of your self, and you are afraid that the people discover how you really are, I can understand, but on that case, the problem is yours, not google's.

cbr 13y ago
A "like" or "+1" is similar to a vote. There's lots of cases where we have private votes: Reddit, HN, politics. I don't mind these being public, and actually had already thought they were, but I can see how other people view it differently.

r0h1n 13y ago

I love the way Internet cos, led by Facebook and now Google are progressively conditioning us to different interpretations of online privacy. First it was "Like or +1" anything you like. Don't worry, it's all private. Then it was, everytime you "like or +1" something, we'll tell all your "friends". Soon, the definition of friends was enlarged to mean "people who you may know or are in some circles", effectively broadcasting your "likes and +1s" to tens of thousands of people. Finally our "likes and +1s" are now considered public endorsements, and fair game for being portrayed as advertisements (minus any compensation to us of course). I stopped using Facebook "likes" a year back, and deleted my Facebook account a few months ago. As for Google+, I signed up briefly when it launched but then promptly closed it. I've never +1-ed anything, and never will.

filestar 13y ago
The real name policy on Google+ makes more sense now and makes it seem as if this was the plan from all along. Endorsements from internet pseudonyms are less recognizable and look weird/fake.
abraham 13y ago
The +1 button announcement specifically says "share recommendations with the world" and the messaging around +1's has always been clear that they are public and associated with your identity. > Today we’re taking that a step further, enabling you to share recommendations with the world right in Google’s search results. It’s called +1—the digital shorthand for “this is pretty cool.” To recommend something, all you have to do is click +1 on a webpage or ad you find useful. These +1’s will then start appearing in Google’s search results. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/1s-right-recommendations-right-when-you.html http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/1s-right-recommendati... > 1 is as simple on the rest of the web as it is on Google search. With a single click you can recommend that raincoat, news article or favorite sci-fi movie to friends, contacts and the rest of the world. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/1-button-for-websites-recommend-content.html http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/1-button-for-websites...

fthssht 13y ago

In a world where everyone is famous to 15 people on their news feed google plus etc. Now everyone can do what celebrities do and endorse products. But we get to not get compensated. If someone famous had this happen to them it would be a clear violation of their rights to publicity. The law needs to be updated so this applies to everyone.

fthssht 13y ago

Let's not forget how easy it is to accidentally click those fucking buttons too which are everywhere

TillE 13y ago
Seriously. I can at least block them on my desktop browser, but I've accidentally hit that button a few times on the Android store. It's just a symptom, though. The whole modern conception of "social networking" can't die soon enough.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

anuraj 13y ago

Your evil, sinister plans - Oh Devil (Google)!

Shenglong 13y ago

It's not that bad once you read into it. It's not bad at all. Google displays my recommendations to my friends, and since I only really like/+1 things I would recommend, it seems natural, and maybe even convenient. Unfortunately, the crux of the issue may lie in consumer protections. While you and I may know exactly what we're endorsing, the average consumer probably does not. The average consumer probably also does not understand that their friends also do not. Otherwise, we wouldn't see so many "FREE $500 COSTCO GIFTCARD - CLICK HERE" posts on Facebook. TL;DR: While I haven't formed a cohesive opinion about this, the problem with endorsements lies in the average case--not in the best case.

james-skemp 13y ago
Agree 100% which is why I visited the page but didn't opt out after reading the page. I assume that what I +1 is public and act accordingly. But for those that don't, which is surprisingly a lot of young people, nice that this option exists.
agarden 13y ago
My thoughts were similar. I only +1 or Like things I am genuinely endorsing, and it's cool with me if the company gets good publicity in consequence. That's kind of the point. I wouldn't +1 something I did not want to give good publicity. So I almost left it on. Then I realized that I had no control over the content of the ad and there was no guarantee that what the ad said had anything to do with my reasons for +1'ing. Nor am I likely to go back and retract my +1 (can one do such a thing?) later if the company goes to the dark side. So I opted out.

spdy 13y ago

Im just curious for me i was opt out to begin with. But it looks like many are not? I still have this voice in my head from Eric Schmidt "With your permission ...", "If you opt-in". So they start to abandon the opt-in ship and we now have to keep up with every sharing/ad-feature they add throughout the whole Google ecosystem to keep the little privacy we still have?

johnpowell 13y ago
They sent me a email earlier today. "The changes to the Terms will be effective as of November 11, 2013. If you do not take any action, the Shared Endorsements setting will be turned on." I imagine many people won't read the email.
- Samuel_Michon 13y ago
  Is that even legal? I’m not allowed to send my customers email newsletters without them opting in[1], how is Google allowed to sell its users’ information without opt-in? Can a company suddenly decide to change its terms, without its customers’ permission? [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAM_Act_of_2003 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAM_Act_of_2003

loop0 13y ago

Mine was already off by default

chmars 13y ago

Why is an opt-out necessary? I followed the link and it seems to be opt-in: http://i.imgur.com/qrJNQtk.png http://i.imgur.com/qrJNQtk.png

tty 13y ago
The option seems to have been enabled by default at least on some Google accounts.
- chmars 13y ago
  It would be interesting to know why the option is enabled by default for some (most?) Google accounts and why it isn't for some (few?) Google accounts.
Samuel_Michon 13y ago
If that checkbox was already checked when you got to that page, it’s opt-out, not opt-in.
- chmars 13y ago
  The checkbox was not already checked, i.e., it's opt-in for me. But it seems that for most users, it's opt-out. I agree, however, that my screenshots shows the checkbox checked. The reason is that I want to mark the line for clarity. By double-clicking the line in Chrome, the checkbox got checked. Without the line marked, the checkbox was unchecked: http://i.imgur.com/cas6SMB.png http://i.imgur.com/cas6SMB.png

jwr 13y ago

Or you could just opt out of Google+. I deleted my Facebook and Google+ accounts about a year ago, deciding that the benefits I was getting from them were not worth the hassle and the privacy concerns. The benefits, incidentally, after I thought about them carefully, could be classified as "chewing gum for your mind". Neither social network enriched my life in any meaningful way. Both consumed a lot of time that could be much better spent elsewhere (for example, in this Hacker News discussion... oh, wait).

jftuga 13y ago

How can I tell if I have a G+ account? I have GMail and YT accounts, but just not sure about G+.

mknits 13y ago

I never created G+ account. It saved and continue to save a lot of time.

elliottkember 13y ago

Actually, this link took me to a "Sign up for Google+" page. This is because I opted out of a Google+ account, so it's to be expected, but, considering the title, it's ironic.

DanBC 13y ago

I'd be interested to see if the legal aspect of model releases and using someone's image with their implied, not explicit, consent.

zjelveh 13y ago

i'm opting out. but not necessarily because of privacy reasons, but because I think I should be compensated for helping sell someone's product. where's my cut?

PaperclipTaken 13y ago

This might actually be a better way to advertise on the internet. My biggest qualm with advertising is that in almost every case, the product being shoved into your face is not the best product for you needs, it's the product with the better marketing plan, which has little correlation to the actual value of the product. With endorsements, it's more likely that I'll get advertised products that suit my needs, because I'll get more advertised products that people who are similar to me have endorsed. It still doesn't remove the marketing budget factor, but it may more strongly correlate the things that are advertised to me with the things that best fit my needs.