Facebook vs. Google+ .. Opinions?

[Brandus]

My G+ account was suspended because I wanted to use my initials but google wanted me to use my full name. I chose to delete my profile rather than renaming it. Even if they hadn’t done that, G+ was mostly a ghost town anyways. It gave off a really strong marketing tool vibe.

[MsWhatsit]

@kiz

If you read their Terms of Agreement when you first sign up, it’s in there. Among other things, they reserve the right to use whatever photos you may post as part of their marketing plan.

I didn’t know it was there either until someone pointed it out to me. I’ve only posted one photo there that isn’t particularly personal, but the fact that they reserve the right suddenly left a bad taste in my mouth.

I just read the Google Terms of Service and I don’t see anything about their being able to use your photos as part of their marketing plan. They reserve the right to use your info in “syndicated services”, i.e. RSS feeds, but I don’t feel that syndicating my information to an RSS feed constitutes “butting into my personal business.”

Possibly I missed the relevant language, though.

Edit: Or did you mean this?

@Google's Terms of Service

You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.

Yes, I grant permission for Google to publish the content that I publish on Google. This seems uncontroversial to me.

[kiz]

http://www.google.com/accounts/TOS

Scroll down to “Content License From You”.

I don’t know about you, but I interpret that as Google being able to use anything I post over there as part of their marketing.

As for their views of privacy?

http://www.google.com/intl/en/privacy/

I have a few longtime online friends who take pains to conceal their RL identities, as well as their children’s, for a number of reasons. On FB they can pick a username that has nothing to do with their RL identity. On G+ they can’t.

I take pains to conceal mine, not because I have anything to hide, but because there are certain places on the web where I don’t want anyone to find me unless I specifically tell them I’m there. I’m very wary of FB for that reason. I haven’t used G+ for a couple of months now. I’m trying to preserve what little shred of privacy I still have online, basically.

[kiz]

@Brandus

My G+ account was suspended because I wanted to use my initials but google wanted me to use my full name. I chose to delete my profile rather than renaming it. Even if they hadn’t done that, G+ was mostly a ghost town anyways. It gave off a really strong marketing tool vibe.

I have a few friends who ran into that very same issue :nodding:

[MsWhatsit]

@kiz

I don’t know about you, but I interpret that as Google being able to use anything I post over there as part of their marketing.

I guess. I’m just not particularly concerned by this.

[DrFidelius]

@kiz

http://www.google.com/accounts/TOS

…
I have a few longtime online friends who take pains to conceal their RL identities, as well as their children’s, for a number of reasons. On FB they can pick a username that has nothing to do with their RL identity. On G+ they can’t.

I take pains to conceal mine, not because I have anything to hide, but because there are certain places on the web where I don’t want anyone to find me unless I specifically tell them I’m there. I’m very wary of FB for that reason. I haven’t used G+ for a couple of months now. I’m trying to preserve what little shred of privacy I still have online, basically.

+1

[OpalCat]

@kiz

On FB they can pick a username that has nothing to do with their RL identity. On G+ they can’t.

My Google+ account name is Opal Cat. That has nothing to do with my RL identity.

[Dustin_Jake]

@Dead_Cat

My apologies - when I see an OP from someone with a join date in the same month that appears to be solely promoting a website/business, I tend to think it might be spam. I now see that you have posted in a number of other threads, making this less likely. No offence meant - I did at least think it was quite well-written and subtle spam :).

Just out of interest, I wouldn’t say that I was “familiar” with Google+, but I know what it is - why would it not be likely that Google might spam message boards in an attempt to increase the number of users?

Not a problem. I looked back at my post and I have to say, Google should hire me for marketing haha

As far as Google spamming message boards, I’d say as the top internet advertising company in the world, they would want to use more sophisticated means of getting users on Google+ in order to keep their credibility. I feel like it would cheapen their brand otherwise… I’d be curious to see how many companies actually do that, though.

By the way, while we’re on the topic of spamming on the message board, what’s the policy on sharing YouTube videos? I make a lot of humorous videos that I like to share with friends, as well as videos related to my music (I’m a full-time musician). It’d be great to share a video on here once in a while, but I wouldn’t want to be seen as the forum spammer