The Frustration with Google Plus “Unity”

Google+ has had an… interesting lifespan on the web, to say the least. It has undergone many, and I mean MANY, transformations. (Its father being Google, it was destined to do so.)

It’s insanely frustrating.

On other popular social sites like Facebook, the majority of changes are very subtle and don’t affect usability, but rather focus on adding more features. Google+, on the other hand, seems to do a complete overhaul every month, forcing its users to more or less re-learn how how to actually use its interface.

Over the past year or so, Google has had its mind set on “unity.” I’m sure you’ve seen it in some form or another, especially in tools like Google Drive. But the whole “unity” thing is holding Google+ back.

Uniting Google+ with other Google-owned products means that instead of having a bunch of separate accounts, Google wants you to have only one. Which, on paper, doesn’t really sound that bad. But if you’re like me and have more than one e-mail address, it makes the transition to anything related to Google rather complicated.

And now, with Google’s acquisition of YouTube, they are, of course, integrating it into the “unity” system somehow.

Who wouldn’t? I mean look at this shit: Youtube as of February 2011 had 490 million unique users worldwide, who racked up an estimated 92 billion page views each month. People spent around 2.9 billion hours on Youtube each month. And that was in 2011. AND that’s not including embedded videos or videos watched on mobile devices! Google already being the go-to search engine makes the two websites a perfect match.

Google’s first project with the website? You guessed it: a re-design!

It’s practically Google’s favorite thing to do. They love to fashion their websites to fit the latest web design fad. That fad now is Flat Design. Which I’m okay with; everything needs a facelift every once in a while.

But a COMPLETE redesign!?

Anyway, what that means is that all of those YouTube users have to re-learn how to use Youtube after using the same interface for years.

Sure, YouTube had a few upgrades. But much like Facebook, they never really changed the experience you had on the website. You could still get on and know where everything was, where your subscriptions were, your favorites, inbox, etc. Google changed all of it.

Literally, everything is different about YouTube, in turn causing a massive uproar in the YouTube community. Especially from the daily users. They completely took out the ability to customize your channel. The only thing you can do to make it ‘unique’ is add a cover photo. By default, they list “What to Watch”, instead of “Subscriptions” so they can give you bullshit “recommendations” that never seem to relate to anything you’d ever want to watch. The list just goes on and on, with a few more design tweeks or “upgrades” every now and then.

Now, after (AFTER) Google has done all of that, they start thinking about the unity crap again. Since YouTube is now owned by Google, everyone on YouTube should use a Google account, right? I mean, it only makes sense to have everyone sign in to Google before you can use YouTube… right?

This part wasn’t so bad. I mean, it was slightly annoying to have to sign in in a different place, but if you already had a Gmail account, then you were in good shape.

If you didn’t, that’s when it got a little more aggravating. The whole idea did “unify” everything— somewhat. Meanwhile, Google+ had undergone many changes of its own. (Actually, it seems like every month it’s a completely different social network. But there can honestly be a whole different lengthy blog post/rant about that, so I’ll just leave that be.) But since YouTube was united under a Google account, why not integrate those users into Google+?

Okay, this next part is what sparks the real frustration. I mean sure, we’re already mildly irritated. But now, they REQUIRE YouTube users to create a Google+ account in order to do anything other than search for or watch videos.

You can no longer post a comment on YouTube without using your Google+ account. There is no longer a YouTube Inbox; all of that goes to Gmail now. An attempt to ‘clean up’ the comment section. And for the most part, Google has taken away the anonymous factor.

I guess they think by having the users use their Google+ accounts, it will somehow pressure them to watch what they say. (Which, previously, everyone can agree was pretty filthy, to say the least.) But nothing is stopping someone from making some anonymous name on Google+ either, since they are forced to create one anyway.

It is hard to look past the fact that this might be some kind of ploy to get people to on Google+, so Google can say “LOOK HOW MANY USERS WE HAVE.” Only like 10% of them actually use it (but I’m sure they won’t mention that).

For the most part, Google+ has actually grown into a pretty nice social network. But forcing users into it rather than enticing them to willingly try it, and then changing the interface constantly, is holding it back dramatically.

Google has taken the simple concept of “unity” and made it into one of the most complicated headaches on the internet.

Maybe one day, Google will get it all figured out. But forcing YouTube, one of the most popular websites on the internet, and it’s users into Google+ is not the solution. Some things are better left alone.

Here is a 10 second clip to better illustrate what I’m trying to say: