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Tech Tuesday, November 27th 2012 at 1:30 pm

Google Play Integrates Google+, Say Goodbye to Anonymous Reviews

By ( ) Comments

As we’re almost certainly all aware, anonymity and the Internet tend to go hand in hand, but it also allows for a vast amount of people to be horrible to others with almost no culpability. There’s no guarantee that removing anonymity would actually stem the tide of trolls, but it’s an argument folks make on the regular. Thanks to a recent update, Google Play is no longer a haven for such activity. In order to post reviews, users now have to do so with their Google+ account. Bummer.

This isn’t exactly all that surprising, though. If nothing else, Google is looking to integrate as many of its various accounts as possible. The more data they can associate with a single user, the more powerful advertising portfolio they have. With the integration of Google+ to Google Play reviews, it’s just another vector they can sell advertisers on.

If it just so happens to reduce the trolling, then so be it. Also of note, older comments now appear to have come from “A Google User,” which isn’t exactly helpful information.

(Droid Life via The Verge, image via West McGowan)

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  • Anonymous

    Good bye Google.

  • http://blog.coatesism.com/ Shaun M Coates

    Really? Amazon requires you to sign into your Amazon account in order to write a review. You going to drop them as well?

  • Anonymous

    You can add a nick name on Amazon.

  • http://blog.coatesism.com/ Shaun M Coates

    Fair enough.

  • asdsadasd

    ascfasfdasdf

  • Me

    Uhm.this is BAD news for developers..Google wants to force users into openening an google plus account. many people dont want this, so in the end developers will miss valuable feedback.

  • me

    NO MATTER HOW THEY TRY TO FORCE G+ onto me i will not join !!! u know what my next phone is most probably going to be a Windows one so who cares. android is so unrefined

  • Aryan

    Good new for developers of crappy apps.. I installed a crap app and wanted to give a bad rating. But didnt because of plus integration

  • Anonymous

    Just like many other users i have been disappointed by the move. I am not interested in joining any social network and, despite the apparent success of those, many people have no interest or even perceive social networks as something negative or useless. On the other hand i am an Android user, a Chrome user a Youtube user and in that position i bought or downloaded apps on which, now i have no control whatsoever anymore in terms of expressing my opinions. This move follows the request from Google to provide my real name on YouTube and even asking me why i didn’t want to provide it (as if it was normal for their alienated minds to go around the WWW stating who you are, what you do, eat etc.). I was already disappointed at Android apps asking me for things 99% of those users find normal, like reading my contacts, reading my messages, accessing my microphone, or the camera and this also with apps that have nothing to do with that. I am also more and more disappointed at Chrome, which subtly affects my privacy (the last action today was to disable all my Kaspersky security features because they “affect performances” and they did automatically). Provided i think many of these things will sooner or later (when we’ll recover common sense on what we are letting Google do with our data on account of their “free” services) prove illegal (The linking with G+ is surely illegal as basically deprives a huge share of users from their right to express an opinion unless they join the nth Google service AFTER they already had to create a Google account), i am resolved to change my whole platform to Microsoft based services for all what i can (Including browser, mail accounts) and then resort to alternative services/devices for all the rest. I am going to change phone too, shifting to Windows Phone or Blackberry, since i never felt any safe with Android phones (Not to mention the platform fragmentation that makes my device old in one year or so). And this as soon as i can. It’s not just the G+ link to the GPlay. It’s Google direction overall that doesn’t suit me, as a user. I was also planning to create a G+ account for my small business (together with the usual Facebook and Twitter etc.) but i have decided that i won’t. I don’t think Google deserves any more drop of power from me as a user. It’s going too far. Also the move will affect developers and my usage of the Play Store. I have stopped downloading stuff, have uninstalled whatever i didn’t need and now my Galaxy Note II is stripped to the essential. It’s useless to download or buy stuff on which you can’t even provide feedback. It’s against consumer’s rights. Plain and simple.