Want a Gmail Account? You’re Now Obligated To Get a Google+ Account With It
|Hey Google, how’s strong-arming people going? Turns out that a change in the way you sign up for Google accounts now requires you to join Google+ when you get your shiny new Gmail account and there’s no opt-out. If you want a Google account you’re getting a Google+ account. That’s one way to increase the number of members you have. It’s also a fast track to a Congressional hearing…
via MSNBC
3 Comments
Between the software dumping of their mobile OS, forcing users to make a Google+ account to keep that failure of a network on life support, and their strong-arming of other companies, it should be enough. It was enough for Microsoft to get an injunction.
Apologists to this will tell you “ITS FREE QUALITY SOFTWARE!”, but what I’ll tell you it’s not their choice whether or not I sign up for anything.
And I’m probably closing my Gmail account because of this, or at least relegating it to a spam mail folder. The ad-generating search company can hold on to my ad-generated spam mail. How delicious.
I agree with you all, but at one point Facebook did something similar.
I actually tried to apply for a job there back in 2008. I went through the online register for a job process, but instead of directing me to the upload a resume page, it tells me “congratulations! You now have a Facebook account”
WTF?!
That’s not the same thing. Facebook is… Facebook.
Google is a million different internet things, and Google+ is their keystone to complete dominance. So they’re forcing people to use it, much like Microsoft bundled their Office and IE suites for free (and got their ass sued in the process).