Nathaniel Hoover | Guy Whose Website You're Viewing
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Series Opinions
    • Mega Man >
      • Mega Man Classic >
        • Mega Man 1-6
        • Mega Man 7-11
        • Mega Man Game Boy Games
        • Mega Man Spinoffs
        • Mega Man Remakes
        • Mega Man Sports & Arcade Games
      • Mega Man Sequel Series >
        • Mega Man X1-5
        • Mega Man X6-8 + Command Mission
        • Mega Man X Portable Games
        • Mega Man Zero Series
        • Mega Man ZX Series
        • Mega Man Legends Series
      • Mega Man Spinoff Series >
        • Mega Man Battle Network 1-3 + Network Transmission
        • Mega Man Battle Network 4-6 + Battle Chip Challenge
        • Mega Man Star Force Series
    • Star Trek >
      • Star Trek TV Series >
        • The Original Series (TOS)
        • The Animated Series (TAS)
        • The Next Generation (TNG)
        • Deep Space Nine (DS9)
        • Voyager (VOY)
        • Enterprise (ENT)
      • TOS Films >
        • Star Trek: The Motion Picture
        • Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
        • Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
        • Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
        • Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
        • Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
      • TNG Films >
        • Star Trek: Generations
        • Star Trek: First Contact
        • Star Trek: Insurrection
        • Star Trek: Nemesis
      • Ones That Don't Count >
        • Star Trek (2009)
        • Star Trek Into Darkness
        • Star Trek Beyond
        • Discovery
        • Picard
  • Games
    • Mega Man Fangame Tracker
    • OH JOES! (A Proto Man Adventure)
  • Presentations
  • Writing Samples

Open Letter to Google

9/16/2013

2 Comments

 
Dear Google,

I do not want Google+. I am perfectly content to be in a perpetual state of mild dissatisfaction with Facebook; I have no need or desire to add another social media account to my list of things I'll forget to update. I keep telling you this, but you keep asking. And you're dishonest about it, too. You created a Google+ account for me without my consent, tricked me into linking it to my YouTube account, and let me get this close to permanently deleting four years of videos and comments in an effort to destroy this thing I've told you repeatedly I do not want.

Now you harass me every time I log in. Change your name, you tell me. I like my name the way it is. No, really, you say. You've got options. It's a choice, you say. Then why are you still bothering me after I've told you a half-dozen times that I want to keep things the way they are? Is that choice, which you extended to me, not a valid one? And if I truly have a choice, why does every option result in a Google+ account I did not ask for being linked to my account? Either force the change on me like you always do, or leave me alone—this pretense of choice is a waste of my time.

Google, I'm sure you know about the roughly 2,790,000,000 search results that come up on your popular search engine for the phrase, "i don't want google+". That's around one hit for every three people on Earth. Going strictly by the numbers, there are more people who don't want Google+ than people who don't want to go to war. About 1,880,000,000 results for "i don't want to go to war", Google. I realize I'm bandying numbers and taking liberties with how I use your data, but you've been taking liberties with my data, so I feel it's only fair.

If you'd like to argue that it's my choice to use your free services, that's fine. In that regard, I don't have a leg to stand on. If what you're doing is that big a problem for me, I should take my business elsewhere. I assure you: the moment that precariously balanced scale tips so that the bad grossly outweighs the good, I am gone. But I don't want to leave. You offer a service that makes it easy to share my creativity and connect with people all around the world. That's why I'm telling you all this. You were a better business, Google, when "don't be evil" was a creed to live by. Now you resort to the tactics of snake oil salesmen and fast-talking used car dealers to push your innovations on us. Now it's your decision, not ours, whether or not we like what you have to offer. Don't be surprised if you wake up one day to find someone whose creativity and quality of service are appealing enough for the masses to turn away from you, the biggest name in town. After all, Google, how many search engines have been banished to the forgotten corners of Wikipedia since you showed up? Do people still use Lycos?

Listen to your users, Google. Listen to the people who like Google+. Listen to the people who are screaming at you to leave them alone. And for Pete's sake, listen to me when I tell you for the seventh time that I don't want to change my username.


Yours reluctantly,

-Nathaniel Hoover
2 Comments
Tpcool link
9/17/2013 04:08:11 am

I'm not surprised that bugs you, I think it bugs everybody. The ONLY benefit to linking your Google+ to YouTube is the ability to change your username, which I really appreciate. Besides that, please stop doing these things, Google! : (

Reply
Nathaniel
9/25/2013 04:21:35 pm

That's what's so baffling to me: the last SEVERAL overhauls anybody's made—Google, Facebook, you name it—have annoyed everyone I know who opines about these things. I can think of maybe one or two people who have had anything decent to say about new channel and page designs, and this whole Google+ thing seems overwhelmingly unpopular. But forcing it on us guarantees we'll grow to like it, right?

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    See what my wife's up to!
    Things I Put In My Husband's Lunch

    Archives

    April 2022
    November 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    January 2021
    August 2020
    July 2020
    September 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

    Categories

    All
    Anime
    Art
    Books
    Collecting And Collectables
    Conventions And Events
    Exfanding Your Horizons
    Fantasy
    Food
    Gamecola
    Holidays
    Internet
    MaGMML
    Marriage
    Mega Man
    Movies
    Music
    News
    OH JOES!
    Opinion
    Philosophy
    Politics
    Religion
    Retrospective
    Sci Fi
    Social Media
    Star Trek
    Star Wars
    Stories
    Television
    Video Games
    Videos
    Writing

    Creative Commons License
    This work by Nathaniel Hoover is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.