Google knows who you are. Google knows where you've been on the web, and what you're doing. They long have. Google told me on my own + page several of the pseudonyms I've used across the web.
The "Google wants to sell you" bit is not insightful. It's not a unique perspective. It's the same superficial analysis we see with every single thing Google does.
Google wants an online community of real people, with what that entails. There is a long and documented trail of discussions on this topic regarding the downsides of anonymity. Yet there are also upsides, and if someone wants an anonymous discussion forum that supports that, there are plenty of options for that.
But it is wholly inconsistent with the goals of Google+.
Alas. Whatever Google does, just say it's because they want to sell you out. It's a clean, pat answer.
"It's the same superficial analysis we see with every single thing Google does."
Superficial isn't a synonym of "wrong". Sometimes the superficial explanation is the correct one. Sometimes people expend a lot of cognitive effort looking for the complex, nuanced answer when the superficial one was correct all along.
And sometimes not, of course.
But I would argue that the idea that Google isn't giving one thought to how much money Google+ is going to make them is the bizarre position, absurd on its face.
I'd also observe that any given action does not need to have one motive. Google can want a "real community" (also because a "real community" is more likely to be active, cause people to spend more time on Google+, and thus see more ads and generate more ad revenue), and also want to have better information with which to target you. There's no contradiction, and there's no way in which one is the "real" motivation and the other is false, they're all just mixed together. There's a whole lot of people here trying to draw lines about what's the real motivation and what isn't when there's no room to draw the lines in the first place.
It is a synonym for "barely worthy of anyone's time.
And yes, of course Google wants Google+ to make them money. But saying "they want a healthy, vibrant, non-threatening community...thus allowing them more page visits and thus ad impressions, thus allowing them to make lots of money" has a completely different synergy than "they want your name so they can sell it".
Google told me on my own + page several of the pseudonyms I've used across the web.
Where exactly? I don't see anything like that on mine, and I'm curious whether Google knows who orangecat is. (Of course they may anyway even if they don't tell me).
The "Google wants to sell you" bit is not insightful. It's not a unique perspective. It's the same superficial analysis we see with every single thing Google does.
Google wants an online community of real people, with what that entails. There is a long and documented trail of discussions on this topic regarding the downsides of anonymity. Yet there are also upsides, and if someone wants an anonymous discussion forum that supports that, there are plenty of options for that.
But it is wholly inconsistent with the goals of Google+.
Alas. Whatever Google does, just say it's because they want to sell you out. It's a clean, pat answer.