When Mixel — an iPad-based collage app — launched last November, one of its features quickly caused frustration: Its requirement that users log in with Facebook before they could start creating and sharing art.
The reason for that requirement, Mixel co-founder (and former NYTimes.com design director) Khoi Vinh explained, was real names. Vinh wanted to build the Mixel community around real names, not anonymity or pseudonyms. "We think this is essential to the kind of experience we're building: a family-friendly environment that's suitable for just about anyone," he wrote.
At the time, Facebook was pretty much his only option. But that is starting to change. And as proving your online identity becomes more important, it's a valuable race for the players involved to win.
I just hosted the first ReadWriteWeb Google+ Hangout, and it was a blast. Vic Gundotra stopped by to say hello, and then the guests and I got to know each other a little bit by talking about how we're liking Google+ and Google's new direction so far. I've got my issues with Google+, and I've published some rough words about it recently, so I knew a RWW Hangout would attract some lively conversation. I didn't know how right I was.
Unfortunately, our do-it-ourselves recording didn't work out, or I'd post the whole thing. Maybe our new friend Vic can talk to somebody and get us On Air capabilities, so we can record (winky face). I promise we'll use it. I'd love to do this again. I'll do my best to recap how it went and what we learned.
Google Maps added public emergency alerts today for weather, earthquakes or other public safety concerns. Users can browse all active alerts at google.org/publicalerts, and relevant alerts will also appear on normal Google Maps searches depending on the query. Clicking through an alert on the map displays more info from the organization sending the alert.
Alerts from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Weather Service and the US Geological Survey (USGS) are included in the service. In normal Google Maps searches, alerts are shown based on their severity, the user's location and the search query.
While the tech world gasped at Apple's quarterly earnings, Google announced a total overhaul of its privacy policies, which are now just one privacy policy. "We're getting rid of over 60 different privacy policies across Google and replacing them with one that's a lot shorter and easier to read," Google's new policies website says. As Google's leaders have made abundantly clear, Google is working towards one unified product, and the new privacy policy and terms of service reflect that.
The new policy takes effect on March 1. It's mandatory for all Google users. While there is no "opt-out," there's no such thing as opting out of a privacy policy for any Web service you use; the major change here is just that Google is now one service. Users' privacy preferences are unchanged, but the new arrangement makes it easier for Google to bring user data across its services. Google is steaming ahead toward integrating search, email, YouTube, social and work, so it's getting the legal ducks in a row to make the new Google one continuous experience.
Google Docs can now be exported from the Google Takeout menu, thanks to Google's Data Liberation Front. Previously, users could export and import documents in various formats, but they are now available alongside data from all other Google services in Takeout.
Google Takeout was unveiled in summer 2011. It allows Google users to export all their Google data to disk or just data from individual services. It's all thanks to the Data Liberation Front team, which builds tools to give Google users control over their data.
Google Maps and Google Earth just got their second update of 2012 to add 45º imagery, which now covers 17 U.S. and seven international cities. These 45º views cause buildings to cast shadows and rotate with real perspective. It's an almost-3D view that makes the satellite view of a place more realistic while still supporting most systems.
45º views act as a transition between the standard top-down view and Google's new Google MapsGL, a full-3D Maps experience powered by WebGL in the browser. That part won't work on certain low-end graphics cards, but for those who can run it, Google Maps gets pretty magical. Google has good reason to push the envelope on 3D maps. Its competitors are working on magical maps of their own.
Google VP of Product Bradley Horowitz has announced a series of changes to the Google+ real names policy. Google+ will now support "alternate names," such as nicknames, maiden names or names in languages with non-Roman characters. Alternate names will appear in the main profile, as well as when a cursor is held over the name. Alternate names will appear in "other areas of Google+" as the feature is implemented over "the next few weeks."
The update also broadens support for "established pseudonyms," such as "Lady Gaga," which up to this point have just snuck by on a case-by-case basis. There's now a more uniform process by which a user can appeal if Google flags her or his name. Users can now submit off-site references to an established identity, scanned documentation (like a driver's license), or a link to an online identity with a "meaningful following."
YouTube's statistics continue to boggle the mind. It revealed today that it serves 4 billion videos every day, a 25% increase in the past eight months. YouTube users upload one hour of video every second, which has prompted Google to create an annoyingly cute website to visualize this awesome stat. At the end of 2011, YouTube reported that it served a trillion videos that year, about 140 views for every living human being.
As Reuters notes, Google reported that only about 11% of YouTube views are monetized. That's not all the revenue Google makes from YouTube, since its Universal Search features YouTube video results prominently alongside search ads. But the YouTube business is still under construction, and it's growing fast. As YouTube's reach begins to dwarf even television, the whole landscape of video content changes.
When Google shipped its Search, plus Your World update earlier this month, it turned out better than expected. Google left users the ability to click back and forth between personal and global modes or opt out altogether. Google's personal search draws in the user's Google+ relationships to tailor the results. When it launched, Google took the position that other social networks were welcome to participate, they just had to make a deal.
Google does make some effort to identify content from other networks. But some SPYW features only highlight Google+ material, even when other services are more relevant. If Google favors its own product over a better result, users get the short end of the stick. Some engineers from Facebook, Twitter and Myspace have built a browser extension called Focus on the User to prove the point. But what about Google+ users? For them, Google+ results are the better result. Arguably, Google should cater to them, as users of its service.
Google keeps on slimming down its product line to focus on what CEO Larry Page calls its "big bets." Today it offered updates on five products that will be going dark this year. The photo editor Picnik, which Google acquired in 2010, will be closed down, and the team will work on Google's other photo products. Google is also shutting down its Social Graph API as its Google+ API slowly trickles out.
Google will also open-source its Sky Map this year in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon university. The Google Message Continuity service, which backs up email for enterprise customers, will be retired in favor of Google Apps. The Needlebase data management platform will be integrated into other services. Finally, Urchin, whose product ultimately became Google Analytics, still had a standalone client-hosted version, which will be closed in March.
