In an effort to challenge Facebook and boost it’s Google+ social network, Google is now using a more than controversial tactic and forces users of its other platforms (Gmail, Zagat, YouTube, Picasa…) to create a public Google + account.
Because using Google+ requires people to sign in to their Google accounts, Google will be able to blend mounds of data about individual users’ search habits and the websites they visit with their activities on Google+. That is a potential boon to Google’s ad business, from which the company derives about 95% of its more than $40 billion in annual revenue
But as Google is learning, you can bring a horse to the water but you can’t make it drink. According to research firm comScore Inc. a year ago Google+ users spent an average of three minutes on the site each month, versus more than 400 minutes for the average Facebook user.