Comments

1. Kylie Sturgess says

   January 24, 2012 at 1:18 am

   It’s cool, you’re REALLY not missing much on Google+ – everyone I follow there is fairly regular at popping the same cool things on Twitter/Facebook all the time.

2. rorschach says

   January 24, 2012 at 1:44 am

   Hm, I’m still not sure this is an improvement. From the link :

   The use of actual pseudonyms is a little more complex. All pseudonym requests will require some kind of evidence, which could range from a URL to your scanned driver’s license. Google+ is not, however, accepting new pseudonyms. This is designed for “established ones.” Horowitz explained that the new account naming option is intended for “people who have earned credit in other social systems and want to redeem that credit in Google+ … We will swing the doors open and welcome them to our system.” Google will destroy all documentation you send them once the account verification process is complete.

   I don’t see G+ as relevant enough at this point to go begging to them to let my ‘nym through again.

3. F says

   January 24, 2012 at 2:26 am

   Maybe a slight improvement in this case (?), but Google is just doing another walled-garden gig like FB. Also, they are messing with search results in favor of entities with a G+ presence. It’s weird, it hasn’t fully shaken out yet, but I dislike Google more and more.

   This may not be the best article (and I hadn’t heard that the FTC was involved previously), but here:
   http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2087347/Google-Plus-probed-US-warped-search-results-favour-new-social-network.html

   I swear, sometimes I’d just like Gopher back.

4. Kate Corwyn says

   January 24, 2012 at 7:52 am

   You do know that in order to register on Facebook now, you have to give them a live telephone number so that they can send you an authorisation code? One person per number.

5. Cuttlefish says

   January 24, 2012 at 7:56 am

   I did not know that, Kate–one more reason I don’t have a real facebook presence either.

6. F says

   January 24, 2012 at 10:54 am

   Ooh, and FB continues its awesomeness as well.

   I wonder if anyone would want to run a Freethought Diaspora server.

7. carlie says

   January 24, 2012 at 2:33 pm

   You do know that in order to register on Facebook now, you have to give them a live telephone number so that they can send you an authorisation code? One person per number.

   Seriously? Did they retroactively verify the other accounts, so that ones like my friend’s dog’s facebook got deleted? I can only hope that people leave in droves.

8. Tiktaalik says

   January 24, 2012 at 2:58 pm

   I just signed up for Facebook a few months ago and I don’t recall anything about the telephone number. They sent a verification through my email, have never been called by anyone associated with them. I definitely like the format better than Google+, which I also have an account in. It’s very hard for me to search for “friends” in google+ – I can’t figure out how to sort by, say, university, and then do a search by that criteria. If it’s possible, it’s not intuitive. I also signed up for MySpace and don’t use it at all – it’s pretty much useless for me. I’ll probably delete the account at some point.

9. F says

   January 25, 2012 at 12:41 am

   Tiktaalik

   I’m not aware of the exact facts regarding the telephone numbers, but don’t forget that FB changes things like functionality and TOS on something like a weekly basis, do all manner of odd things at whim, and offers pretty much no support.

   I think what FB wants is to use a text message from a mobile phone to confirm your identity (multifactor authentication), although many would just as easily suspect that this is pretense or that there is nothing to stop FB from using the information for other purposes.