Can't post Youtube comments without G+ profile?

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

I rarely post comments on youtube but today wanted to leave a 'well done' message with a question, I couldn't.

I already have a G+ profile which I have since basically abandoned and I have a Youtube user name which is NOT my real name or linked to my G+ profile and I like it that way. Youtube however now displays a notice encouraging me to switch my youtube name to be my real name as found on my G+ profile. The other options given is to create a new G+ account using my youtube name which I don't want to do either or to create an entirely new youtube name with G+ profile. No other options are given ?!?! A skip or no thanks would seem to be in order but they are absent.

You can no longer bypass this pesky popup box either, at least not in Firefox, by refreshing the page. I've tried all options(twice) to avoid assigning my real name to youtube and now have two new G+ accounts which I didn't ask for. In the end I cannot comment.

Besides trying to gain more information and/or create more G+ profiles what is the possible gain in frustrating me this way?

[oliondor]

Google cannot fight with Facebook which is the real social network but everybody will end by use Google plus one way or another...

[brotherhood of LAN]

Indeed. Google have consolidated all their disparate services into one login. Microsoft has done the same I believe.

It shouldn't really matter too much if you simply want to comment on a YouTube video.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

It shouldn't really matter too much if you simply want to comment on a YouTube video.

But that's the thing, it does. I used to be able to comment just fine with my youtube account but now I can't. The G+ profile is now mandatory unless you watch videos without logging in to Google which means you can't comment.

You can no longer be logged in to Google to watch videos without this popup appearing unless you have a linked G+ profile.

[brotherhood of LAN]

>without logging in to Google which means you can't comment.

YouTube is Google though, but I understand what you mean.

You can control what's visible on your Google profile.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

I hope they don't force a G+ profile on anyone who uses adsense/adwords like they did on youtube users.

[engine]

oliondor said it correctly. Google is shifting people over piece by piece, so that you will have to use it to use Google's services.

It's growing Google's social network by stealth.

[mjtaylor]

It also makes sense as a business model. We tend to look at Google as though we were the customers. We aren't; we're the audience. And while we know that, it's still easy to forget that and expect Google to treat us as though we were. I'm just grateful it's Google and not the government. :D

[oliondor]

You see a difference between google and the goverments spies ? Your are dreaming !

[mjtaylor]

Yes, I do. I believe their motivation is largely the same: control. But I believe their means are not so draconian.

[tangor]

To comment or not to comment... that is the ... (sorry, couldn't resist! LOL!)

All is about the buck... and who has it... and where they are located, their address, their name, their... no conspiracy talk, just business! Seriously, they want to know who is who and you want what they offer. In the old days that was quid pro quo... enter my store, buy my goods, I know who you are and were to deliver... and I can send you some advertising as a followup regarding new products so I can get more of your money. Nothing new...

The "free and open web" is passing. Corporates will eventually exercise their expense, which has made all that "free" available for so many years, in closed loop consumerism.

Google is just leading the charge.

[engine]

The "free and open web" is passing.

It has passed, imho. This is why so many small businesses stand little chance against the corporate monsters.

Google is just leading the charge.

Exactly right, and that's probably why they are no longer seen as cuddly innovators. Most of the other businesses are on Google's coat tails, too.


We are the commodity, unless you cut yourself off from the net.

In one respect, I envy a 95-year-old relative that has no computer, no mobile, no store cards or loyalty cards, etc. Apart from their phone line (for important health communications purposes), to marketers, they don't exist.

For the rest of us, it will never be like that again, imho.

[mrguy]

It's growing Google's social network by stealth.

Requiring people to sign up and them using it after they sign up are two different things.

All they are doing is padding the numbers so they can say "see, look how many people joined Google +" when in reality, anybody who is not in the this industry doesn't use Google plus and never will.