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People so vocal about these types of frustrations are the same people who keep refusing to just unify Google's services. You have multiple Google accounts so li

by Kequc 13y ago

People so vocal about these types of frustrations are the same people who keep refusing to just unify Google's services. You have multiple Google accounts so link them then that's the end of it. There are much more important things to worry about like Youtube's copyright policies. By being driven away, what you mean is they are doing things to move forward and you want it to stay the way it was. Since that isn't going to happen you are annoyed and want to bash Google's reputation. Android, Google Docs, Hangouts, Maps, and yes, Google+ are all amazing free products. Google Checkout is going away because Google Wallet is their new thing. The company is fine and their reputation is fine. A couple of stubborn people are being left behind in a sea of "do this now" notifications because they keep not doing them. Sorry to be so brash. But each of your accounts still remain "separate" after you link them. There are extensive privacy settings for every piece of information you put online using Google+ so it is not a chore to keep charity work separate from work separate from personal. It's actually quite elegant. I don't understand, is it because you are used to using aliases? Why do you want to fight this so hard?

anon1385 13y ago
I think this comment is a great example of the disconnect. You (and I presume a majority of the people working for Google) are not actually able to even comprehend why people might want multiple accounts, or to have separate accounts for their email and their video watching and their blog. He even gives examples in his post, like administering an account for a charity organisation, but somehow things like that are unimaginable to people in the Google bubble. It's pretty worrying when a company can't even understand the basic motivations behind the actions of their users: how can they possibly weigh up the costs and benefits of forcing account consolidation when they can't even imagine the use cases where consolidating accounts doesn't make sense for users.
- jamesaguilar 13y ago
  I doubt the person you're replying to works at google. His profile says he is a ruby developer and as far as I know we don't use that. Also, his attitude is not particularly common within google.
  - anon1385 13y ago
    I didn't mean to imply that I think he works for Google. >Also, his attitude is not particularly common within google. So the majority of Google engineers disagree with the policies of the management? Do people internally push back against this stuff (trying to force account consolidation and making everything part of G+), or are people too afraid to speak out? If people aren't happy with it, how far does it have to go before morale drops and people start looking for other jobs?
    - skybrian 13y ago
      Google is a big place and there's lots going on, both good and bad. There is lively internal debate and plenty of pushback, but there are also good reasons to stay even when you disagree about a particular issue. There are people who leave, but someone who's unhappy might just switch to a different team.
    - jamesaguilar 13y ago
      Brian said it better than I could. We can disagree with parts of organizational policy while still being happy with the whole. This is not unique to Google or even to employers. Any large organization will have things you don't like. Also, I guess what I was really getting at is that I don't think the attitude is that cavalier in any case. People recognize that having to adopt a new API when we close a product sucks. But that is not the only consideration when deciding whether to continue. That's probably about as much as I can say while remaining vague enough to satisfy my conscience on the point of confidentiality.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- tonfa 13y ago
  Personally I just use different chrome profile for my different accounts. Never had issues with profile merges.
- Kequc 13y ago
  Account consolidation basically means you can switch between accounts without logging out and logging back in again. So there's that. You can still have a bunch of email addresses, the fact you didn't know this shows that you've never been interested in trying it. I don't even know how else you imagine that it could work, would one of your email addresses just go away? Your post hasn't answered my original question. It supposes I should just know why you don't want to link your Google accounts.
lotsofcows 13y ago
"There are much more important things to worry about like Youtube's copyright policies." Such statements are stupid because they apply to everything. You have no idea what's important to me - I have no idea what's important to you. The only thing I can be sure of is that, as one who uses the internet, the only objectively important things (food, shelter, security) are already covered.
nmcfarl 13y ago
I will not speak for the parent - But in my case it is because my business uses Google apps for domains and we have accounts shared amongst various people such as the customer support. This is an account because Google required accounts (not aliases/lists/groups) to access certain resources – but it is shared because multiple people have the need to perform the function. This however results in Google trying to link that account with every support agent's personal Gmail account which gets annoying… And this in spite of the fact that we do not have any agents actually login to read mail - we manage all of our support in zendesk.
- mortehu 13y ago
  > This is an account because Google required accounts (not aliases/lists/groups) to access certain resources What type of resources are these, that can't be controlled with an ACL?
  - nmcfarl 13y ago
    Google Checkout is a good example, the founders and the accountant all needed access when we were using it. It's much easier to create one account we all shared - than grant access to all 3 accounts, for all things accounting related. Additionally some services - and I think Google Checkout was one - do not allow you to grant access to others at all, so if you started such an account in the accountants name, everytime a founder wanted to check out the balance, we’d need to get the accountant’s password. (Also you never know when signing up weather this will be the case for a service - thankfully I’ve not seen any new "single account" services launch for a couple of years, but I’m still wary.)
    - LamaOfRuin 13y ago
      Google Checkout allows (allowed) granting access to other accounts.
      - nmcfarl 13y ago
        Cool - so not checkout, there are still plenty of google services that don't/didn't and sorting them out is not easy.

by Kequc 13y ago

anon1385 13y ago

I think this comment is a great example of the disconnect. You (and I presume a majority of the people working for Google) are not actually able to even comprehend why people might want multiple accounts, or to have separate accounts for their email and their video watching and their blog. He even gives examples in his post, like administering an account for a charity organisation, but somehow things like that are unimaginable to people in the Google bubble. It's pretty worrying when a company can't even understand the basic motivations behind the actions of their users: how can they possibly weigh up the costs and benefits of forcing account consolidation when they can't even imagine the use cases where consolidating accounts doesn't make sense for users.

jamesaguilar 13y ago
I doubt the person you're replying to works at google. His profile says he is a ruby developer and as far as I know we don't use that. Also, his attitude is not particularly common within google.
- anon1385 13y ago
  I didn't mean to imply that I think he works for Google. >Also, his attitude is not particularly common within google. So the majority of Google engineers disagree with the policies of the management? Do people internally push back against this stuff (trying to force account consolidation and making everything part of G+), or are people too afraid to speak out? If people aren't happy with it, how far does it have to go before morale drops and people start looking for other jobs?
  - skybrian 13y ago
    Google is a big place and there's lots going on, both good and bad. There is lively internal debate and plenty of pushback, but there are also good reasons to stay even when you disagree about a particular issue. There are people who leave, but someone who's unhappy might just switch to a different team.
  - jamesaguilar 13y ago
    Brian said it better than I could. We can disagree with parts of organizational policy while still being happy with the whole. This is not unique to Google or even to employers. Any large organization will have things you don't like. Also, I guess what I was really getting at is that I don't think the attitude is that cavalier in any case. People recognize that having to adopt a new API when we close a product sucks. But that is not the only consideration when deciding whether to continue. That's probably about as much as I can say while remaining vague enough to satisfy my conscience on the point of confidentiality.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
tonfa 13y ago
Personally I just use different chrome profile for my different accounts. Never had issues with profile merges.
Kequc 13y ago
Account consolidation basically means you can switch between accounts without logging out and logging back in again. So there's that. You can still have a bunch of email addresses, the fact you didn't know this shows that you've never been interested in trying it. I don't even know how else you imagine that it could work, would one of your email addresses just go away? Your post hasn't answered my original question. It supposes I should just know why you don't want to link your Google accounts.

lotsofcows 13y ago

"There are much more important things to worry about like Youtube's copyright policies." Such statements are stupid because they apply to everything. You have no idea what's important to me - I have no idea what's important to you. The only thing I can be sure of is that, as one who uses the internet, the only objectively important things (food, shelter, security) are already covered.

nmcfarl 13y ago

I will not speak for the parent - But in my case it is because my business uses Google apps for domains and we have accounts shared amongst various people such as the customer support. This is an account because Google required accounts (not aliases/lists/groups) to access certain resources – but it is shared because multiple people have the need to perform the function. This however results in Google trying to link that account with every support agent's personal Gmail account which gets annoying… And this in spite of the fact that we do not have any agents actually login to read mail - we manage all of our support in zendesk.

mortehu 13y ago
> This is an account because Google required accounts (not aliases/lists/groups) to access certain resources What type of resources are these, that can't be controlled with an ACL?
- nmcfarl 13y ago
  Google Checkout is a good example, the founders and the accountant all needed access when we were using it. It's much easier to create one account we all shared - than grant access to all 3 accounts, for all things accounting related. Additionally some services - and I think Google Checkout was one - do not allow you to grant access to others at all, so if you started such an account in the accountants name, everytime a founder wanted to check out the balance, we’d need to get the accountant’s password. (Also you never know when signing up weather this will be the case for a service - thankfully I’ve not seen any new "single account" services launch for a couple of years, but I’m still wary.)
  - LamaOfRuin 13y ago
    Google Checkout allows (allowed) granting access to other accounts.
    - nmcfarl 13y ago
      Cool - so not checkout, there are still plenty of google services that don't/didn't and sorting them out is not easy.