Despite some early success, the Google+ network really hasn't caught on in the mainstream. But the search engine giant realizes that they must compete with Facebook -- and prevent it from totally dominating the "social web" -- in order to not lose out on billions of dollars of advertising revenue. This new aggressive move, according to industry experts, is designed mainly to boost usage of their own social network.
Being able to closely track people, with profiles attached to their real names, will improve ad targeting and allow Google to earn more money from their primary advertising business. Also, the company says that requiring the use of real names when leaving online reviews improves the quality and honesty of the reviews.
According to Google Vice President Bradley Horowitz:
"Google+ is Google... The entry points to Google+ are many, and the integrations are more every day."But many people -- including some Google employees -- aren't very happy with the pushy new policy. Many people aren't even aware that a public Google+ profile page -- which can contain quite a bit of information about online activity -- is being created when they sign up for free Google services. Some Google developers feel the strategy is the wrong way to try to save the Google Plus network and hurts the company's public image.
We say: This kind of stuff could end up hurting Google big time! We love Gmail, Blogger, Google Documents, YouTube and all the other wonderful free Google services. And we don't mind having ads served up to us constantly while we're using them. But forcing people to use a "ghost town" social networking platform could end up doing a lot more harm than good... and could even quicken the demise of Google+ as a whole!
Learn some mo': There's No Avoiding Google+
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