Remember the character Pat from Saturday Night Live in the early 1990s? Played by Julia Sweeney, this androgynous character later appeared in It's Pat, a film based off of those sketches. That character, along with Julia Sweeney, have long since retired Saturday Night Live, but if Pat was still around today, he/she could sign up on Google+ and others still wouldn't be able to determine the character's sex.
Call it a win for privacy advocates if you want, but the selection of gender on Google+ is no longer mandatory.
"Great news! I'm proud to announce Google+ Profiles is launching a new privacy enhancement in response to user feedback," France Haugen, Google+ Profiles Product Manager, announced in a post. "Starting later this week, you will be able to set the privacy setting your gender on your Google+ Profile just as you control other information about yourself."
Haugen goes on to explain in a nearly 2 and a half minute YouTube video that if you choose to make your gender private on Google+, the social networking service will use gender neutral language to describe you whenever someone else requires gender information about you, but doesn't have permission to access that information. For example, a notification may read "Francis added you to their circle" rather than "Francis added you to her circle."
Comments are closed on this article
Holly Golightly
July 13, 2011 at 9:43pm
I am cool with privacy, absolutely. But why be ashamed about your gender? Half of the world is your gender. I would rather hide my last name then hide my gender. I guess this works great for people of transgender experience. One thing though, I am pretty sure when people look for friends, they would not filter their search for genders unknown. You are either looking for a male or a female. I guess... But still, this is an absolutely respectable move from Google, and finally, a social network that listens to their people. Thank goodness! :)
Ghok
July 14, 2011 at 1:26pm
Transgender is a word that means a lot of things, so I can't really comment on what you mean there, but lots of people don't really believe in gender roles, and don't like to be identified or judged based on their sex. Just like how some people don't like to be judged on their race, nationality, or age. It has nothing to do with being ashamed of anything.
It's also something that advertisers love to judge on. On facebook I get all sorts of "macho" ads, because I'm a male in my 20s. Although once when I looked at the webpage of a lesbian band, my computer thought I was a lesbian for a while, and so I got a lot of lesbian focused ads. That was a fun week!
Holly Golightly
July 14, 2011 at 2:47pm
I totally agree with you. There is nothing wrong in hiding your gender. I never get gender-specific ads... Or any ads at all because I run an ad blocker. Of course, not on my favorite sites like MaximumPC. I have gotten more spam meant for men then I do with women. Like certain enhancements. Long ago, I used to get female targeted ads, which are mostly things like diet pills, or rich men. My guess is, with an unknown gender, you will probably get ads for both sexes, which can be somewhat offensive if you find the wrong ad for you. Some ads like birth control, abortions and etc. If this doesn't both you... That is fine. But I would hate to find a dud targeted ad for me about strip clubs, or porno. Just seems wrong to target me. This is where the blessing of an Ad Blocker comes in handy.
I guess what I meant by transgendered are anyone who may feel that they are the opposite gender or a little of both. I do not know much about the gay and lesbian community, but I am not sure a drag queen or a cross-dresser can say they are one or the other, yet they are forced to... I think. Look like one gender, but are actually the exact opposite. As for shame, there is nothing to be ashamed about. Only a small percentage of the world is a white male, so chances are, that large percent that isn't had a history of oppression. Not the them personally, but as a group. So I am proud to be a woman, and would never want to hide that. Although there are some people who I can not tell who are male or female. Even more convincing than Pat from Saturday Night Live. We should always be proud of who we are, and to never be judged by who we are.
Hopefully, Google+ will allow us to set advertisement preferences... Otherwise, to ad-block with them, gender or not. As for the nationality part, that is a much more sensitive thing, and even till this day, racism still exist, but I highly doubt sexism on the internet is that common... Maybe in some other countries where women can't drive, or use the computer. So I hope you can keep your nationality a secret. This will enhance the safety of some users for sure. Although, don't you just wished ads did not exist at all? Man, a free internet surfing experience!
Ghok
July 13, 2011 at 10:50am
At first I was all "Great... another social network I don't need", but the more I hear about it, the more I'm thinking "Great, something better than facebook that I actually might not mind using because they listen to their userbase!"
EvilHomerGD
July 13, 2011 at 8:50am
This is fine for gender-neutral names like Pat or Francis or whatever. There's no hiding the fact that my name (James) is male, so it seems almost pointless to me.
Wingzero_x
July 13, 2011 at 10:26am
They should just get my "Squirt" hockey coach. He would just take the first 4 letters of your name and add Y. I went from Wendell to Wendy.
haboh
July 13, 2011 at 9:37am
Do you have to use your real name though? I'm not on google+ so I don't know.. Just pick something neutral. I don't want to be recognized on the internet anyway if case someone want's to use that against me IRL..
Darkside
July 13, 2011 at 9:03am
In some cases, it's probably going to be pointless: Google is definitely going to run into a name that is gender-specific. The thing is that being vague on choosing a gender is an option for people that are concerned about privacy, which is a plus for wanting people to either convert from Facebook or start the social network experience with Google+.
mls067
July 13, 2011 at 10:15am
myspace, AOL where are you???!!!!
sounds familiar doesn't it. We are so big, who gives a crap about the end user. They are dumb anyway!!
then, POOF!
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