One Way or Another, Google+ Is Gonna Get You

Gmail user? You’re a Google+ member. YouTube video producer? You’re a Google+ member. Reader of Zagat restaurant reviews online? You’re a Google+ member. It doesn’t matter that you probably don’t actually use Google+ to connect to friends and acquaintances the way you do on Facebook and Twitter; Google is requiring that users of its many online services sign up and create a profile on its social network in order to use those services. The point? Like Facebook, it’s to capture users’ real names and target them with increasingly specific ads. Sam Ford, a 26-year-old, was surprised to find that he had a Google+ profile, complete with an app review he wrote at the Google Play online store. Google is “trying too hard to compete with Facebook, and if people aren’t going to share (data) willingly, they’ll make them share unwillingly,” he said. [Wall Street Journal]