Private Google Profiles To Be Deleted

Google Profiles will play some role in the company's social product or 'layer' and it seems to be getting the upgrades and housekeeping necessary for this. For example, Google is planning to delete all private profiles from the service in a few months' time.

Very small pieces of the puzzle are slowly coming together, revealing Google's social ambitions. It may be just the collective imagination running wild, but there seem to be too many signs for them to be pure coincidences.

In an entry on its Profiles help page, Google is announcing that all private profiles will be deleted on July 31 this year. The only way to prevent this is to set your profile to public, even if you only include a minimal amount of info.

"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 require all profiles to be public," Google writes.

Of course, it does make sense from most points of view. The whole idea behind Profiles is to have a place for others to find out more about you. There really is no point to a private profile.

What's more, Google says that a public profile only has to include a minimal amount of info, just your full name and a photo.

"Keep in mind that your full name is the only required information that will be displayed on your profile; you’ll be able to edit or remove any other information that you don’t want to share," Google explained.

"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 July 31, 2011," it warned.

Considering that most people that use Profiles, not that many, already have them public, the move shouldn't affect too many. Still, only now that rumors of its social networking plans are heating up again is Google making the move. [via TNW]