WTF happened to Google?

[ceptimus]

I've used iGoogle as my homepage on multiple computers for many years. Thanks for the ride, Google, it's been great. Shame you decided to kill this free service, but I suppose you had your reasons.

Google has been reminding me for ages now 'iGoogle will be going away after November 1st' - but this was a Google lie as it's already gone on November 1st.

Anyway, I've not found any good free and ad-free alternatives to iGoogle, so I shall now set up a (private) links and email page in my own web space that will do the same sort of thing.

It's an opportunity for me to also set up my own pseudo dynamic domain name service, so that when I'm away from home, I can connect to my home VPN via a link in my web space. Recently, the free dynamic domain service providers like dyndns.org seem to have all gone away, become less free, or started to suck in other ways.

[MonCapitan2002]

Google are a bunch of fucktards. They keep trying to shove Google- down the throats of its users. They keep trying to force me to use my pseudonym to post comments on Youtube when I have desire or intention to do so. I keep saying I don't want them linked and they keep attempting to force the change on my.

Fuck you Google, and the horse you rode in on. May all your executives die from an incurable infection from flesh eating bacteria.

[Dingfod]

...transmitted by a rusty crowbar, no doubt.

[BrotherMan]

Jesus fucking christmas all you whiny damn babbies. Shut the fuck up about it already. I almost got sucked into your giant hole of whiny damn babbiness but then checked it out all on my damn own. Despite my youtube account sort of linked to my gmail account I didn't have to connect my youtube account to my gmail account in a for reals sense. Now my youtube account name has its own stupid g+ account that means nothing to me just like my youtube account name doesn't mean anything to me. I only have an youtube account on account of wanting to tell a couple of people that I liked their youtube video and or to subscribe to various channels of entertainment. BIG GODDAMN DEAL YOU GIGANTIC WHINYING BABBY PEOPLE.

[JoeP]

Log out of Google as soon as you've finished whatever it is you needed to be logged in for.

If you have to stay logged in, used a condom. Like a different browser or possibly one of these in-private / incognito modes, or a goddamn virtual machine.

[MonCapitan2002]

Originally Posted by Dingfod

...transmitted by a rusty crowbar, no doubt.

Far too unimaginative for the fucktards. I think the infection vector has to be something unique. Maybe have their favorite foods laced with them so they can die that way (not serious suggestion). It does seriously fucking annoy me though.

I have no fucking interest in using Google- and would prefer for them to stop trying to shove it onto me.

[Dingfod]

What do you use for a search engine, Bing?

[Stormlight]

Bing is for searching porn. Or so I'm told.

[lisarea]

There are other search engines out there! GAWD!

I usually use duckduckgo or startpage.

I get p. mad about G+ too, because the two main things I hate are people getting up in my shit and not fucking off when I tell them to. I also hate real name policies. But I am boring and lazy, so I still mostly just put up with the annoyance.

[LadyShea]

I have managed to use my grandfathered in Google stuff mostly as is. I don't use Google Plus at all (personally), I have an alias on my You Tube account etc. They bother me about it, especially my You Tube wanting to use my real name, but unless they want to actually prevent or bar me from using it unless I use my real name, they'll just have to deal with it.

[specious_reasons]

Originally Posted by LadyShea

I have managed to use my grandfathered in Google stuff mostly as is. I don't use Google Plus at all (personally), I have an alias on my You Tube account etc. They bother me about it, especially my You Tube wanting to use my real name, but unless they want to actually prevent or bar me from using it unless I use my real name, they'll just have to deal with it.

It bothers me that the top internet companies just don't get that you might want to provide a public face that's not tied to your real name. Seriously, I don't have any problem with most regulars knowing who I am, and I'll even tell you privately if asked. Privately.

Until there's no professional penalty for being an atheist, or expressing political opinions, I'd rather have a degree of separation between my real name and my internet presence.

So, no, I don't want my YouTube account, which is pretty publicly linked to the rest of my internet presence as specious_reasons, to be renamed with my real name.

[LadyShea]

It bothers me that the top internet companies just don't get that you might want to provide a public face that's not tied to your real name.

I don't get it either. Facebook is contained to Facebook, you know? Unlike some people, I use the shit out of the customized sharing tools (when I bother to use it at all)...Google though, is a wax of a different color. I use all kinds of Google, it is not contained to one discrete place where I can exert some level of control over who sees what. I would never, ever let the You Tube goobers and assholes know who I am, first and foremost. There are issues I want to discuss that I don't need my coworkers and shit seeing. Why is it "Use your real name or just don't participate"?

I wonder why nobody at Google has considered cyber-stalking and cyber bullying and sometimes downright fucking scary online harassment issues when begging me to use my real name on everything.

Hey Ensign Steve, can you fix that when you get over there?

[MiiP]

Originally Posted by lisarea

I also hate real name policies.

Me too! I mistyped my name on gmail and can't seem to fix it now.

[lisarea]

Originally Posted by LadyShea

I wonder why nobody at Google has considered cyber-stalking and cyber bullying and sometimes downright fucking scary online harassment issues when begging me to use my real name on everything.

Because it's outside their demographic. Isn't everyone a wealthy public figure with extensive security details to protect them from unhinged freaks who might come looking? Is there some other perspective to look at this from or something? LOL.

Their other main position is that G+ is primarily an identity service and that social networking and whatever is secondary.

Hey Ensign Steve, can you fix that when you get over there?

Or I could just go over to Eric Schmidt's house and talk to him. I'm sure he would be OK with that.

[Ymir's blood]

I never can remember the difference between Eric Schmidt and a gray ooze or ochre jelly.

[Ensign Steve]

Originally Posted by lisarea

Or I could just go over to Eric Schmidt's house and talk to him. I'm sure he would be OK with that.

I'm on it!

That workplace was one of the few places I've been in the world where I felt comfortable speaking up about controversial topics and confident that I would be both listened to and understood. This particular topic comes up internally and gets hotly debated on the regular. I promise I'm debating for the good side, and I use the shit out of and associated links to research and back up my shit.

IOW, srsly, I'm on it.

[Kael]

Ensign Steve for President (of Google)!

[Ensign Steve]

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by lisarea

There are other search engines out there! GAWD!

I usually use duckduckgo or startpage.

DuckDuckGo is my choice.

Might give startpage another whirl.

[Leesifer]

Originally Posted by JoeP

DuckDuckGo is my choice.

Might give startpage another whirl.

You guys and your hipster search engines.

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by Ymir's blood

I never can remember the difference between Eric Schmidt and a gray ooze or ochre jelly.

From the quivering, pulsating tentacles at the end of each polypous appendage of ochre jelly there dripped a foetid grey ooze. When the thing sometime known in unhallowed circles as Eric Schmidt attempted to talk, it was not the monstrous words it articulated in no language known to Google Translate, nor the gelatinous, blasphemous timbre of its tones, nor even the unearthly shrieking, but the foetid breath of unholy advertising and corruption of privacy that caused me to lose consciousness for an instant.

- The Shadow over Mountain View, H P Searchcraft

[Watser?]

Originally Posted by JoeP

DuckDuckGo is my choice.

Might give startpage another whirl.

Using Ixquick but not always happy about it. I'll try those two.

ETA: Ixquick = Startpage

[Ari]

From my little understanding they are pushing G+ internally as well, to the annoyance of some devs, so don't expect it to lighten up anytime soon. Many are personally aware of not wanting to link one name to another so while there should be some ways out of that, the consolidation and real name use isn't going away.

While I know some people who have delinked their pseudonym through creating full 'fake' profiles that they then connected them too, this is technically against google's rather harsh real name rules (Which I'm technically violating by using my real world name instead of my legal one).

[ceptimus]

It annoys me that they have changed the commenting thing on YouTube. They seem to want to morph YouTube into a Facebook clone.

Listen up Google: some of us don't like Facebook and don't even have Facebook accounts! The more you try to make YouTube and your other sites into Facebook-alikes the more of us will desert your sites altogether.

[LadyShea]

On the Social Media front (not Google but I don't want to start a new thread

Rejecting Billions, Snapchat Expects a Better Offer - NYTimes.com

Snapchat and applications like it represent a coming sea change in social media, one not necessarily defined by shared or public interactions. These services present an antidote to mainstream services that are meant to capture life moments so they can be shared, liked and commented on. Snapchat’s appeal lies largely in the lack of permanence. It offers a reprieve from worrying about awkward or unflattering photos turning up unexpectedly.