Google’s new account sign up requires Gmail and a profile, automatically joins users to Google+

Jordan Kahn

According to a post on the unofficial Google Operating System blog, Google redesigned the account sign up process and now requires users to create a Google Profile, a Gmail account, and automatically join Google+. This will certainly help the continued growth of Google+ that currently sits around 90 million users, along with 350 million active Gmail users, according to Larry Page’s announcement during the Google’s Q4 2011 earnings call.

Before the redesign that has not yet rolled out to everyone, users could create an account by simply entering an email address or creating a Gmail account. According to the report, the new form requires users to fill out a name, gender, and optionally a mobile phone number. However, perhaps the most significant change is the fact that new Google account holders will have a Google+ account created automatically, and they will have to fill out a Google Profile during the sign up process. Users can still delete their Google+ and Google Profile if they wish. They will also be able to delete Gmail after creating an account. The change seems to have rolled out only through Google’s homepage and a few services, with the old sign up form still accessible elsewhere.

Google explained on the new page:
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Report: FTC includes social network Google+ in antitrust probe; EPIC urges FTC to watch search changes

E. Betters

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is expanding its antitrust probe of Google to include the inspection of social network service Google+, according to Bloomberg.

The publication sourced two people “familiar with the situation,” and cited ”competition issues raised by Google+” as the primary aspect of the FTC’s investigation into whether the globally popular search engine gives preference to its own services. The FTC is also inquiring whether such practices violate antitrust laws, according to Bloomberg, who could not identify its sources due to the investigation’s nonpublic status.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company rolled out “Search, Plus Your World” to its search engine Jan. 10 and dubbed the revision a “personal results” feature that displays Google+ photographs, news and comments when user’s conduct Web searches. The Electronic Privacy Information Center promptly called upon the FTC on Jan. 12 to investigate the recent search changes in a letter posted on its website…

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Here’s how to turn off personalized Google Search results

Jake Smith

Google introduced a new feature called “Search plus Your World” yesterday that includes both public results with privately shared posts and profiles from your Google+ account meshed within Google search results. Obviously, this has raised some concern among users, but also clutters search results. Luckily, Lifehacker posted a nice guide on how to turn off personalized search results, and it only takes two steps.

  1. Select “Search settings” on Google.com.
  2. Navigate to the ”Personal results” section and select the option “Do not use personal results.”

As Lifehacker pointed out, this setting does not actually disable personal results, but rather makes it the default to have them not be displayed. If there is ever a brief second you want to go back, you can quickly toggle the setting within your search result.

Google is continuing to push Google+, whether you like it or not.

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Finger Gate causes an uproar among blogger, while Google states official stance on the matter

Jake Smith

CrunchFund partner and TechCrunch contributor MG Siegler made quite the stir over the past few days, when Google removed his Google+ image that showed him raising his middle finger. Once Google removed the image, Siegler uploaded the photograph a second time, only to be removed again. The second time, Google provided the following explanation to Siegler:

As the first point of interaction with a user’s profile, all profile photos on Google+ are reviewed to make sure they are in line with our User Content and Conduct Policy. Our policy page states, “Your Profile Picture cannot include mature or offensive content.” Your profile photo was taken down as a violation of this policy. If you have further questions about the policies on Google+ you can visit http://www.google.com/intl/en/+/policy/content.html, or click the “Content Policy” link located in the footer of Google+ pages.

Google explained that this is not directed just towards Siegler. Google revealed that it reviews every user’s profile when it is first created, and that all profile pictures are reviewed. Siegler himself wrote a post on the subject, and then later followed up. Marketing Land pointed to the rule Seigler broke that some might call debatable:

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The state of Google Plus: 62M users, 625K new signups per day

Mark Gurman

Research firm Elance put together some calculations about the growth of Google’s social network Google Plus and the statistics seem outstanding. Paul Allen, known as the founder of Ancestry.com, leads the team, and he shared their calculations on his Google Plus page.

As of Dec. 27, Allen writes, the Google Plus user base sits at right around 62 million users. This is up from the 50 million users reported on Dec. 1, demonstrating massive growth. The posting noted that 25 percent of all Google Plus users joined in December. These numbers represent a daily growth of approximately 625,000 users.

As a comparison, Facebook’s last shared user base statistic was 800 million users as of late September. Earlier this year, Twitter reported 460,000 signups per day, which has obviously shot up after its integration with iOS 5 and for other reasons.

“If this rate of new signups (625k daily) continues then Google+ will reach 100 million users on Feb. 25th and 200 million users on August 3,” reported Allen. “They will finish 2012 with 293 million users.”

The reason for the massive December growth for Google Plus is unclear, but it may have to do with the release of the heavily Google-integrated Galaxy Nexus phone or due to new marketing tactics surrounding the 2011 holiday season.

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