You can do that by following the "Deleting my entire Google+ profile" procedure. I've done it few weeks ago and unless Google has changed which services get deleted along, you have nothing to worry about.
Your Google+ profile will be deleted along with other services and data that depend on your Google+ profile.
What to do:
Sign in to Google+.
Click on your full name or email address in the top-right corner of your screen.
In the Account Management section, click Delete profile and remove related Google+ features.
Select Delete your entire Google profile.
One question: with everything seemingly requiring a google+ account these days - what other services here do you end up getting rid of?
I think Google is trying to inflate its G+ numbers in order to seem competitive with Facebook, so its basically a dick-size contest with users getting caught in the middle.
You're basically saying he has no proof, and therefore what he said only amounts to an opinion, and can be dismissed as such.
The thing is, it doesn't matter whether he's got proof or not. He's free to present his thoughts, and you're free to ignore them, or perhaps more productively: consider them.
Extremely few discussions are formal debates. So instead of behaving like you're in one, how about just listening to what people have to say, and evaluating whether you think there's any merit to it, or whether it might be true, etc?
Someone says something, you react to it. Then you say something, and someone reacts to what you said.
Now let's go through his post as an example:
>>> Of course, for the people that matter (especially advertisers) can see through it.
- "Hmm.. Well, I guess that's certainly possible. Perhaps even likely! After all, lots of people are complaining about Google+, and it really does seem like Google is doing their best to count everyone using YouTube as a Google+ user. Advertisers are likely to notice what's going on, just like you and me on Hacker News, and they won't like it."
>>> Some content producers are already moving away from YT, at the same time AdSense is the one that still pays the best.
- "I suppose moving away from YT would make sense for an advertiser that's fed up with Google's behaviour. Hmm.. I wonder if AdSense actually does pay the best. Maybe this guy knows something I don't, or maybe his claim is inaccurate. Oh well!"
I wasn't talking to you though, unless you're a sock-puppeteer, but whatever.
> The thing is, I was responding to this:
>> This is a very accurate description
Is it not?
>>> I think Google is trying to inflate its G+ numbers in
order to seem competitive with Facebook, so its
basically a dick-size contest with users getting caught
in the middle.
At any rate, my point still stands. This is not a formal debate.
This is a discussion, not a peer reviewed paper, which would be obvious to anyone, but anyway I wouldn't waste my time discussing with HN idiots anymore.
Here's my argument: more traffic/users/signups equals more money. It's simple.
Your Google+ profile will be deleted along with other services and data that depend on your Google+ profile.
I wonder what would happen to my old Blogspot blog that has hundreds of entries. And photos in that blog, that were uploaded to Picasa through Blogspot before G+ even existed.
I can see that Blogspot album in G+, so it might be data associated with G+ and it would be deleted. We spent hundreds of hours writing and taking those pictures, so it would be a shame to have all that hard work deleted because of a vague what gets deleted description.
The way I unlinked was:
1) Account Settings ->
2) Overview ->
3) Right next to your avatar there should be a link to disconnect G+ from your youtube profile.
If you recently joined, you can't. I just went through this yet again, and they now have a "14 day period" where you can unlink. After that, as far as I can tell, it's permanent.
I got out by using the well-hidden setting in G+. There wasn't any G+ data to delete, though, so I don't know whether it just "deactivates" your profile the way otehrs do.
My wish for Google is different. I want it to keep interfering how I like to consume its services. I want them to keep needling me. And everyone else. I support innovation. This is the surest path to new innovation... a competitor with a better value proposition.
Yes. Google reached the point where it resembles AOL and Microsoft of the past. We now in need of a new "Google" to disrupt the toxic social ecosystem they have created.
That's not entirely accurate. I blame high turnover. When no engineer is left to fight for their pet causes, AOL and Microsoft happen. Hell I attribute MS' decline more to turnover from very key players (one could out Bill Gates himself in this camp) more than any other metric. Having been at a very small shop to see this first hand, I notice it everywhere. Places don't bother to get new developers to really care enough to take ownership anymore. Its a burden they hope magically happens and never does.
I agree with you about competition. As for Google, Reddit, etc. I have a handful of ids on each. The profile attached with my real name is quite public, and I disclose quite a bit of my life there. As for my comments that I don't want associated with my real name, well, no one is stopping me from creating ids for that. So, I don't see what all this hue and cry about Google+ is all about.
The hue and cry is because google is doing the equivalent of forcing you to link all of your different reddit identities together, so the things you did not want to disclose with your real name are now displayed with your real name, whether that is what you intended or not. Remember youtube was not always owned by google, and they were seperate IDs
You cannot retroactively create another identity to seperate them. the only thing you can do is entirely delete your google account along with your email, youtube videos, picasa albums, etc etc..
Wait until everyone with a Gmail address finds that every Youtube video they have ever viewed is now available to everyone who knows that email address.
> because google is doing the equivalent of forcing you to link all of your different reddit identities together
As someone who has lost count of all his google email ids and Google+ profiles, I'm telling you that that's just not true. They unified Google sign-ons, and that's all. You can always create another Google/Gmail id to comment "anonymously", or even make and post new videos.
they unified the signon of youtube (which was not google) with google, and coerced everyone into linking the two, and then, later, coerced everyone into retroactively making their youtube content appear with their real name.
If you don't get why this is a problem, then at least do us the kindness of not being obstructive to people who do. Figure it out. it's not hard.
It's like saying "Well, what's the problem? if you don't like it just delete all your youtube videos and discard the years of investment you've made into your youtube identity"
Google is not providing the option of having a youtube account that is not linked to a google+ account, and not providing the option of having that google+ account have a pseudonym. They are saying to all the people who are already established on youtube that the jig is up: You must reveal who you really are, now, or leave. It's an unfair ultimatum to people on youtube who have maintained anonymity for legitimate reasons.
> "Well, what's the problem? if you don't like it just delete all your youtube videos and discard the years of investment you've made into your youtube identity"
No, you don't have to delete or discard anything. Figure it out. It's not hard. And do us the kindness of not being a troll to those of us who have.
you really don't get it. the issue is not with throwaway accounts. The issue is with identities that have years of investment with them. If you want to be legit, invest time in google's products AND stay anonymous, google wants you out.
Whatever else people like or don't like about YouTubageddon, it doesn't feel "marketing driven." If anything, if feels more like consistency over experience.
The conversion to Google+ comments is voluntary on Blogger, and old comments don't get converted. Why shouldn't people posting on YouTube be able to choose between the trollish-but-established culture of YouTube or the cleaner, less pseudonymous Google+?
I deleted my g+ profile a week or so ago, it didn't take gmail with it (or my domain).
Fun fact: During the deletion process, Google says they'll "attempt to remove your data over the next few weeks" I assume they throw up their hands after a few nanoseconds, and just store it all anyway.
Google takes data deletion very, very seriously. If you delete your profile, all the data associated with it will most certainly be eradicated. When you read things like "over the next few weeks," consider that there are things like regular offline backups (maybe on tape). That kind of media is thoroughly cleaned out on a regular schedule, but due to its offline nature you can't really expect it to be cleared immediately when you press the button.
Is it a measure of how far Google's reputation has plummeted, that absolutely no one in this forum believes that for a nanosecond? You could try adding some credentials so we would believe you know what you're saying. Or even a link to a policy statement. But its probably 'too little too late' - the Google brand is damaged goods by now.
I don't believe it. Sorry. They are a for-profit corporation, and they are about making money for investors by providing value to their customers. We are not their customers. Advertisers are their customers.
Ahah my impression - even a goog employee doesn't vouch for his employer anymore - maybe try to say something more affirmative if you want to be at least believed by the most naive of us.
I work on open source software on a team that doesn't handle any user data. [1] When people on other teams talk about data deletion they talk about having to make sure that when a user deletes something it really does get deleted from everywhere. I spent a couple minutes searching for a Google blog post explaining how this works and didn't find one, so rather than overpromise I just left it as "my impression".
ARGH!
Is it just me or are the procedure described in the link actually not working : the buttons are not there with exact name, nor results or choices.
And if I try with the 2nd account directly, the one they created because of Youtube, it asks me to try an unlink (or delete!) it on Youtube, where the option is nowhere to be found...
Epic fail!
I dropped the few fake accounts when I decided it was too much work to keep 3 different android devices going at the same time with different settings, not to mention separate purchases. Seems premature now.
Hopefully this quells the rest of the aversive posts about Google plus from now until eternity, although I already know that would be nearly too much to hope for.
"If you don’t have a Google+ account you can start or join a limited hangout, which only includes the option to hang out with 1 other person. If you’d like access to all Hangouts’ features including the ability to hang out with up to 9 people, share your screen, and use cool Hangouts’ apps, you can upgrade to a free Google+ account at plus.google.com"
Shit that sucks. Despite its bugs Hangouts is a great product I use multiple times a week, sometimes daily. Now I'm going to have to create a fake account just to use Hangouts.
The same reason you have to jump through hoops with third party tools to download apps from Google Play without using a Google-approved device. They want everyone to be fully immersed in the Google experience.
Not like I think it will have any impact what so ever, but in theory if they have a counter for that and can show up at the next board-meeting saying "30% of our (force) converted G+ accounts results in people deleting their accounts and leaving our ecosystem entirely", that might in theory, affect them to change their course of action.
In the real world, probably not, but at least it gives people the satisfaction of having felt that they may be sending a message.
wow. I just signed on to a youtube account I had made years ago. I had not signed into it for a long time. Just this moment tried to sign on and things were okay, except I noticed I now have google plus for that account.
I just deleted everything. Seriously google, fuck you.
I pay out of the arse for Apple products precisely because the alternative is to pay out of the arse for Google products using the currency of personal information. And I don't trust them anymore.
