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The purpose of Google Profiles is to enable you to manage your online identity. Today, nearly all Google Profiles are public. We believe that using Google Profiles to help people find and connect with you online is how the product is best used. Private profiles don't allow this, so we have decided to make it a requirement that all profiles are public.
If you currently have a private profile but you do not wish to make your profile public, you can delete your profile. Or, you can simply do nothing. All private profiles will be deleted after 31 July 2011.
Businesses were the first to go, and they've now been joined by those who value their privacy or have other reasons to use a pseudonym.
Various tech publications have found their corporate accounts unceremoniously booted, with Google claiming that it's trying to keep the service for individuals at present. While this has been met with stoic understanding by the people involved, the company's next step in the cull might cause a bigger stir: the advertising giant is focusing on those who prefer to be known by an avatar.
Opensource Obscure, a Second Life user who prefers to be identified by his/her avatar rather than by his/her real-world identity, is one of the first to be have been selected for removal from the service. While the account is still present on Google+, it is listed as 'suspended'.
one has to wonder if Google’s new policy is somehow connected to their advertising business. See, they can’t really drive that business with fake accounts. If someone signs up as “Charles Foster Ofdensen,” that doesn’t really give their agencies much to work with, does it?
