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Trying to force people to use Google+ smacks of desperation.

Google has changed the rules of its Play store so that you now need to be on Google+ to leave a review. I think this is a bonehead move.

Google's Play store  for Android apps has been a big success.  It has become a serious rival to Apple's  market leading App store and may even grow to surpass it. Google+ on the other hand has not managed to dent Facebook's dominance of the social networking space. Many, many users of other Google services have chosen to to pass on Google+. Perhaps they are happy with Facebook. Perhaps they just don't use social networking.

I suspect that forcing people into Google+ before they can rate Android apps will damage the Android store more than it will boost Google's struggling social network.



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Comments

Macnol said…
My thoughts exactly.

Actually, I always have the feeling that I'm doing them a favor by rating and reviewing an app (considering the difficulty of sorting through the sheer volume of available apps to find the best ones).

Now they try to make my life harder when I want to help them? No thanks google, I won't join your crappy G+ and you won't get any more reviews from me.
12:38 pm
mbp said…
I have seen folk trying to justify the move saying it will improve the quality of reviews but I don't buy that. I think it is a sly attempt to make converts for G+. I am worried it will backfire though by tainting the Android store which is a big success with G+ which is something of a non-event.

The really silly thing is that Google+ insists on a real name policy and I can't even set up a throwaway G+ account for that reason. It isn't that I am an axe murderer either it is just an accident of history that I have multiple online personalities and it would be too confusing to try and combine them now.
12:51 pm
Anonymous said…
Desperation: exactly. But why? Does Zuckerbaby's sabre-rattling really scare them that much? Both company's can coexist: one does gossip and noise, the other does search, movies, maps, mail, etc. I have this image of a tiger meeting a rabbit in a forest and spending the rest of its life trying to eat grass.
11:32 am
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