They're coming and it will be difficult to get away without having one. Google Profiles will be integrated in most Google services so you have a coherent identity and a simple way to manage your contacts.
"A Google Profile is simply how you represent yourself on Google products — it lets you tell others a bit more about who you are and what you're all about. You control what goes into your Google Profile, sharing as much (or as little) as you'd like."
Until now, you could create profiles in Blogger, orkut, Google Groups, Google Co-op and all of them could contain different information. You could also add photos in Gmail, Google Talk and orkut, so the situation started to become confusing.
The new Google profiles are already available in Shared Stuff, Google Maps, Google Reader and will be added to other web applications. For example, in Google Maps you'll find the link to your profile at the top of the page.
Profiles are public and contain basic information about yourself: a nickname (the real name is displayed only to your contacts), your occupation, your location, a list of links, a photo and a short description. They are embedded as iframes in pages that showcase user-generated content (personalized maps, shared bookmarks).
It's not a stretch to see that these profiles are the perfect host for your activity streams and your public activities could become a part of the profile (uploading photos to a public album, bookmarking web pages, posting a new blog post). It's basically FrindFeed's widget that can be contemplated at Paul Buchheit's blog.
A side-effect of the public availability of your profile is that people can find it. "Can people do a Google search for my name and find this profile? It depends. If you put your full name in the Nickname field, pages on which your profile appears may be returned as results by Google." You can already find more than 100 profiles attached to Google Maps pages. Maybe Google will even create a directory for profiles and start to suggest friends based on personal descriptions, location and activity streams.
They are going to have to make some sort of opt-out option because I certainly don't want people to be able to look at at the trail of data I leave on google through search, mail & maps.
ReplyDeleteIts not clear at the moment what Joe Public can see on my profile - its all very vague. Very un-google-like
Yes yes, ok, all that is ok, but we already want to see the photo of the writer of the blog we read everyday, not a lake, so c'mon
ReplyDeleteThis further complicates things for those of us using Google Apps on our own domains.
ReplyDeleteI use multiple identities depending on the Google service, some professional and some personal. I too hope this is optional, I have no desire to combine everything into one public identity. If this is pushed on me, I'll move my stuff over to other services like Zoho.com. I smell evil and it makes me sad.
ReplyDeleteMakes me sad, too! I can clown when relating to greatgrandchildren; but I am also a board certified Grief and Loss Counselor and as long as we still live in the U.S.A., the constitution of said country still granted me the right to present a scholarly professional portrait for that if I still choose ~ ...last I looked. Of course, the Obama kid seems to keep trying to turn us into Germany, and that is not one bit amusing. :(|
DeleteIt's the Hitlerish imitation side of the Obama kid. I am both a greatgrandmother and a board certified professional Grief and Loss Counselor, and so, I have total empathy with you.
DeleteWhy do people always look for the sinister? I use several different Google products and I use OpenID for another range of products. Should I use a different identity and password for each and every program?
ReplyDeleteIf Google Profiles allows me to "write once use many", then that makes sense to me.
In an era where any phone call you make can be/is listened to by your Government, and Gmail is already read to target ads, Google knowing I also looked at a map isn't really much of a problem.
Looks like violation of privacy to me.
ReplyDeleteHow is it a violation of privacy if you personally upload this content on your own? Maybe a violation of public-domain..
ReplyDeleteI don't like it. Il be moving to zoho.com
ReplyDeleteI can see how this would simplify things and I trust Google, as a company, but surely the potential for abuse of this profile is enormous.
ReplyDeleteAs long as I have the following rights, I don't see a problem.
1. the right to opt out completely from this profile.
2. the right to make corrections if someone else poses as me.
3. the right to control access to my information.
Dear Google, please think long and hard about this. I like your services and would hate to switch to someone else.
I agree that this further complicates matters for those of us using Google Apps on our own domains. Google needs to embrace Google Apps users, not ignore them and treat them like red-headed step children. (and why do I still not have the latest gmail upgrades for my google apps domain?)
ReplyDeleteThats Cool
ReplyDeleteWould you please review http://www.Tagza.com - Young & funky Bookmarking web site
I only think that you could have used a better picture of yourself. And thats what many in here also seem to want.
ReplyDeleteBTW, for Matt Cutts,
Dear Matt, if you are listening, Why don't you get Ionut for one of your Google Edu videos? All 50k+ visitors of this blog can for once see what they have been for long assuming.
Not a bad idea. Besides, it will help your online credibility to have a Google profile, in addition to gaining more trust from your search engine users..:-)
ReplyDeleteShawn
http://www.Drewryonline.net
I think also that without a Google profile, people in the future will also ignore your business. So, it pays to have 1. People wanna match a face to who they are consuming from online! :-)
ReplyDeletewww.Drewryonline.net
I am curious to see how they integrate more heavily with gmail and to see how, once completed, google will rank in terms of the largest social networks. A quick wikipedia search reveals gmail has "tens of millions" of users and facebook is expected to have "60 million by the end of 2007". Once completed could they be one of the largest social networks on the web?
ReplyDeleteThis seems like the kind of thing that could preclude open data standards, but I hope that's not the case. I need to be able to export all this aggregated data about my activities in a standards based format and be able to expose it selectively to advertisers and customization services. It's probably not in Google's financial interests to allow that to happen in the short term, but in the long term if everyone else did it and Google did not then I would reject Google as creepy and go with the standards based universe of services. Maybe Google will go along with data standards so they aren't rejected as creepy.
ReplyDeleteI have to say that if Google at some point try to 'force' me into the social networking arena I will stop using their products. I didn't sign up for a 'myspace' or 'facebook' service when created my Gmail account. If the profiles and public data isn't optional and will be there whether I like it or not I will stop using Google, which is too bad because I like Gmail and Reader better than the competition so far.
ReplyDeleteI think it's a horrible idea and I will not be sharing my personal data with Google. Google should allow anonymity of its users, and allow them to float around without trying to become a huge surveillance network. No one wants this and Google will eventually see that this sort of policy is bad for business, until then I will not be using Google services to store any of my information, files, and so on.
ReplyDelete@Marshall Kirkpatrick Well said! Totally agree
ReplyDeleteWOW you mean google will finally allow me to tell millions of strangers what my occupation and hobbies are? I've always wanted to share with perfect strangers all aspects of my life. Where do I sign?
ReplyDeletethis is unfortunate. i was really hoping google would adopt openid and make it easy for us all to once and for all integrate customer records across all the different apps we need to support processes to do work with people.
ReplyDeleteIt's about time!
ReplyDeleteBuild a system and platform to receive documents and digitize.
ReplyDeleteThe idea I have is for Google to be the first have a service that works similar to a county recorders office. This service could help... Authors of online content... digitize the content (article, blog syndications, and such) This will eliminate much of the copy right issues in online publishing...
Everyone has or will soon have a real estate on the web (If they own a domain) and it needs a parcel ID and anything associated with the estate... like Title deeds, mortgages, or other relevant documents... are recorded with the county recorders office... anyone can retrieve a document for a fee... for specific dealings with the real estate... based on the recorders assigned numbering sequence with a shortened url...
So in the same approach... Everyday people that work as independent publisher write articles and over time they can loose the domain or web server errors and technical failures....etc.. and basically for a researcher on the web... dealing with that particular Independent online publishing company looses opportunity to evaluate work that may have been lost.
GoogleRecords
iGoogleRecords
Of course someone can say that Domain records exists already with ICAAN... but that is one of many aspects of transactions that transpire on the website as relate to online publishing. As a unique service that could help an independent publisher, a researcher, writers... and others... easier access to more than see the eye about websites.
Often times someone is researching a link and the url turns out to be bad or a bad link request...
Of course this is a rough idea and can be refined.
Aside from the "big brother" aspect of this new change, I like the idea that all of my personalities are brought together and recognized by Google. It adds relevancy and authority among other things...
ReplyDeleteIts not a bad idea. But, I think users should be given a choice to opt out of it. I mean, privacy is matter you know.
ReplyDeleteEspecially these days when Google gets to get anything and everything about us. I think Google should rethink their privacy strategy.
Being social online is fun but not entirely safe.
It smells of "Microsoft think". Hey, we have all these great tools, lets link them together into a unified system. It will make the products more consistent and easier to use (familiar). More people will choose our products because of it.
ReplyDeleteGoogle isn't likely to use the feature to anyone's detriment, but there are plenty of people out there who will find ways of exploiting the system.
Example; gmail spam expodes because a sufficient amount of unique info is available about you to generate user specific spam.
I would like to create my profile right away!
ReplyDeleteI would love to see support for XFN and hcard on these profiles. Given the work on OpenSocial, it seems like an obvious thing to do at this point..! ;)
ReplyDeleteThe most important google service to combine with Google Profiles Must be Orkut. If Google Profile can integrat with Orkut, Google Maps, Gmail, Calendar, that's will be wonderful. But Orkut's Interface still not good for use, still not better than facebook
ReplyDeleteGoogle profiles... OpenID, un savoir qui ne conçoit pas la contradiction avec knol, un tracking des sites visiter avec l'historique de navigation...
ReplyDeleteCette omnipotence de Google liée à un commencement de flicage m'inquiète un peu.
I love how they have to give examples for what we should enter for our occupation and location.
ReplyDeleteRemember that most of the folks using these services don't seem to think too deeply about their online presence. (Okay, they should, but they don't.)
And they'll make up occupations and locations, too. You just know that there will be any number of Google Profiles for people 'located' in "Narnia," "the Milky Way," "Over the Rainbow," and so on. You could do it, too.
You should make it possible to upload a photo we would want to use as our profile picture in MY PHOTOS without using one from the albums content
ReplyDeleteA big-time FOR SURE :D
Delete@Nelson:
ReplyDeleteYou can choose a photo from:
a) your computer (the default location)
b) Picasa Web Albums
c) a web address
hi,there is allot to write but one thing which i like to state[your shawdow should be your idle]
ReplyDeletehi i am new but i woould like to say that since the war has started i have hated it i wold like to know everyones oppinion about the war.
ReplyDeleteGoogle Notebook is now included. They forced me to federate about a week ago..
ReplyDeleteits the most smartest stunt that google wud do..the google profiles..that way u cn search ppl easily and their deatils..but arent u afraid that somebody else will use the idea before u do??
ReplyDeletehow can i make a google profile
ReplyDeleteYou can edit the profile in Google services that are integrated with the unified profiles: Google Maps (there's a link to "My Profile") and Google Reader (click on "Manage friends").
ReplyDeleteHere's a direct link for editing profiles:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.google.com/s2/profiles/me/editprofile.
"Thought of the day"
ReplyDelete"Pay more for the ability to deal with people than for any other ability under the sun.
Honestly, It's neat but I'd be concerned for the privacy issues. If I could specify what's seen and gathered by it then it's totally amazing. If not. I want to opt out.
ReplyDeleteFirst streetview, and then maybe they are gonna make a faceview using these profiles.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I dont mind using it but it really is possible for someone to abuse this feature. so they must be very careful with these
thank you
ReplyDeleteall of you are great,
i am so glad we have you looking out for all of us!
blessings to you!
Bug Report:
ReplyDeleteChanges to a Google Profile photo do not last. For whatever reason, the updated photo will display for a few hours (days?), but the old -- original -- profile photo always replaces it.
I find myself having to update my profile photo almost daily; it's intensely frustrating. Please report this bug.
The edit profile link does not work, it always leads to a 500 server error on my browser (firefox3).
ReplyDeleteWhy i can not find let's say my own profile? How come taht Google does not privide a service like e-mail search?
ReplyDeleteAs Andy said a month ago, changes to the photo get overwritten with the original photo after a few hours
ReplyDeleteGOOGLE, PLEASE FIX THIS BUG !!!
I hope google will fix those problems.
ReplyDeleteGoogle Profile Photo bug. I can't change my Google Profile photo. It keeps reverting to the previous photo. This problem, error, bug has been around on Google Profiles for a while. Is there a solution or trick to get past the bug?
ReplyDeletePatrick you are correct, I too have the same problem though out the Google products. I think the google address book is no longer in sync with the google talk photo.
ReplyDeleteI can change it whenever I want.
ReplyDeleteI keep having the same problem as above, where I can't change my profile photo. I upload a new one, and it stays there for a little while, but then it changes back to the previous one.
ReplyDeleteI've been very frustrated by this for a month now, so any help would be appreciated.
Tried dozens of times over 3-4 months to change the Profile photo. Can change it, but the change never lasts from more than several hours. I have deleted Google Profile information, Gears, Picasa, GTalk, etc. in attempt to see if it was a local cache problem or image source on the web. Used different computers with the same results. Have used Mac OS 10.5.6 with Safari 3.x, and 4.x, and Firefox 3.x; have used WinXP with Google Chrome, Firefox, and IE 7 (and now 8) -- all with the results. I'm left with this being a problem with Google.
ReplyDeleteI have the same Google Profile photo bug. It keeps reverting to the old photo...
ReplyDeleteNow if the good people at Google could acknowledge this bug?
Am I the only one that thinks that this is NOT a good idea? Does George Orwell's "1984" ring a bell? WAKE UP PEOPLE, STOP BEING BLIND, THIS IS BIG BROTHER IN FULL EFFECT.
ReplyDeleteThere's no need to opt out you dorks, the service is completely optional. If you don't want a profile, don't create one!
ReplyDeleteyou cant abuse public domain. by its nature it is public
ReplyDeleteI believe this is a good thing. Everyone these days google their friends name, coworkers, etc. This way, you can take ownership over the information that they get. If you are the best provider of content, then you are also the owner. This service will prevent many people from digging further into your internet trail, because they can get basic information from you on the first link, and therefore avoid looking further down and finding something you'd rather not share.
ReplyDeleteThe internet is an open place, and everyone can read what you say and do already, so why not? Maybe it will keep your future employer from looking at those vacation photos where you had a bit much to drink that was accidentally published by a "friend".
Is this even released or still in beta?. Due to some reason profiles are blocked but when clicking on ask for consideration it is erroring out as 500 Internal Server Error!!
ReplyDeleteWill be there any google analytics added to my profile page? It will be interesting to see who's searching for you.
ReplyDeleteI think also that without a Google profile, people in the future will also ignore your business.Why i can not find let's say my own profile
ReplyDeleteThat's great, we need it, we want it, but yasni is the best.
ReplyDeleteI only think that you could have used a better picture of yourself. And thats what many in here also seem to want.
ReplyDeleteBTW, for Matt Cutts,
Dear Matt, if you are listening, Why don't you get Ionut for one of your Google Edu videos? All 50k+ visitors of this blog can for once see what they have been for long assuming.
I just wrote about creating a Google Profile on my blog, http://www.foxleymarketingsolutions.com/457/create-a-google-profile/ and I think it is an awesome way of sharing the information you want people to find about yourself and your company.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing,
Karl
When I close & reopen Firefox, my Autofill profiles on the Google Toolbar are gone. What happens to them?
ReplyDeleteI have the latest versions of Firefox 3 and Google Toolbar 5. I've entered 3 profiles multiple times, closed Firefox and rebooted my pc and each time I come back, my Autofill profiles are gone again. I also use the PageRank tool and every time I reboot, the PageRank is gone again too and I have to manually add it back.
Also have tried dozens of times over months to change the Profile photo. Can change it, but the change never lasts; keeps reverting to an earlier photo. Like others, I have also deleted Google Profile information, Gears, Picasa, GTalk, etc. in attempt to see if it was a local cache problem or image source on the web. Used different computers with the same results. Have used Mac OS 10.5.6 with Safari 4.x, and Firefox 3.x; have used WinXP with Google Chrome, Firefox, and IE 8 -- all with the results. We can haz fixin'it? Mkay, thx bai.
ReplyDeletei know how to create one as i have already. but how do i access it to edit
ReplyDeleteGo to your profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/me and click on "Edit profile".
ReplyDeleteHas anyone figured out this bug? I have the same problem. My picture always disappears.
ReplyDeleteJameson Detweiler: As does mine. It's very annoying that I set my profile picture and it disappears after a short period of time but I see some people's picture stays without a problem.
ReplyDeleteTo all with profile picture problems, I am right there with you. Continues to disappear or revert to my old picture. I have uploaded it in Google Accounts editing and in GMail to my contact. What the heck? I would love to know what is wrong.
ReplyDeletei confirm bug with disappearing profile image. gmail, wave - it disappears from everywhere
ReplyDeleteDo you use Pidgin ? Here is an explanation:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.google.co.uk/support/forum/p/gmail/thread?tid=2da7cb46ceed01d2&hl=en
I've already made my own profile on google but it seems doesn't work fine for me while my profile doesn't show up at google SERP
ReplyDeleteI've written a couple articles and my name is all over the internet because of it. It has been a good thing for me. I like Google. They gave me Google Voice for free - and it ROCKS!
ReplyDeleteTommy Newcomb
VerifyHistory.com
oh yes, that was pidgin ^^
ReplyDeletemy profile got blocked for absolutely no reason. just like one of my blogspots that didn't even have content on it. really frustrating. the blogspot got unblocked at least. ive submitted it for approval many times. plus deleted it, recreated it. what now? new email or something?
ReplyDeleteI didn't understand the concluding part of your article, could you please explain it more?
ReplyDeleteThanks, @Fabien!
ReplyDeleteProblem solved changing the Pidgin Google Talk account photo.
How do I get back on my profile ? I can not figure it out!
ReplyDeleteI almost can't believe that Google profiles do not have a mobile output, especially considering that Google is so forward in mobile.
ReplyDeleteI feel that if they did have a mobile optimized output, we'd really be able to create a "calling card" trend where people print up business cards just with their names and a QR code on them that reconciles to their mobile page on Google profiles...
Naturally, the page on mobile should be laid out different, i.e. Your name on top, then something similar to what Bestbuy.com does on their mobile site for images (m.bestbuy.com), then text, then a list of links, and last, "contact" if the contact via email is activated.
i guess this will complicates things for those who are using Google Apps
ReplyDeleteSo far so good, no complains on my end..
ReplyDeleteI have been using Google profiles for a while, and I particularly love the fact that they can be used as OpenID to log on multiple websites around the web. The direct competition I see is from Facebook as it seems you can log in on even more sites with your Facebook credentials.
ReplyDeletecan't use my google+ invitation...
ReplyDeleteno google+ for me...
ReplyDeleteSame Here. Apps customer. and not happy about it.
ReplyDeleteNow with Plus it's a bit different, but your prediction came true - you can't get away without one of them...
ReplyDeleteI've made a tutorial how to brand them and use as a marketing resource so you can have a look: http://zakaszewski.net/branding-your-google-plus-profile-psd-template/
Still can't use Google Profile with an Google Apps account ... so no Google+ for Google Apps user??? wtf!!
ReplyDeletesame here - my apps account won't allow for a profile.
ReplyDeleteNot sure if anyone is still having the same profile picture issue, but it has reared its ugly head for me now as well.
ReplyDeleteI have been trying to change my picture for about 3 days and to no avail. It continues to revert back the moment I navigate away from page and come back in.
EXTREMELY frustrating and looks like this is a bug that began in Google Profiles a couple years back.
Did anyone find out what causes this?
I am also finding it impossible to change my profile picture in Google+. It keeps reverting to the old one. Can anyone help with this?
ReplyDeleteIm having the same problem. cant change my profile picture.
ReplyDeleteI can't change my profile picture either. Even when I delete all of the profile pictures in my profile picture, it won't go away.
ReplyDeleteSame problem of profile picture... If anyone knows what is goin' on, I'd like to know !
ReplyDeleteI want to have a google profile and yet want to have another anonymous one too for my personal safety. stalking is very real, so is powers that be evil or good having great power to ask google to submit information about some user. google would give it away without batting an eyelid, that is not so good imho. anonymity is as much important as is legitimacy. somehow, the turn for universal forced lack of privacy is not so good.
ReplyDeleteits along way from Google profile to Google plus :-)
ReplyDelete@Anonymous I think that the new Google plus feature had this anonymous feature... maybe you should try it... or for other safety reason, just use your fake name to avoid any other user stalking you....
Hi Folks its all about hunting us down, nothing more than that.
ReplyDeleteIn the name of security .... everything is being looted
why do people have so much mistrust for google
ReplyDeleteI have falled in lovable boutique after reading its daily blogsite and website about the imperial vista of Best Boutiques Online and truly its design, quality and collection make me in trance. Women's Boutique Hilton Head and Women's Fashionable Clothing Online is its services. above board its just sensational. Tf you are are the attire's lover of course you will have to visit its web portal.
ReplyDelete
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