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Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/02/26/google_plus_sign_in_to_other_apps/

Google+ goes single sign-in, exec roasts Zuck's 'frictionless sharing'

Promises not to 'spray' Web2.0rhea all over stream

By Kelly Fiveash, Networks Correspondent

Posted in Networks, 26th February 2013 18:04 GMT

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Google+, which is the ad giant's "network thingy" [1], can now be used to sign into third-party apps, the company confirmed today.

It works a lot like Facebook Connect [2]. Google said that developers building apps for Android, iOS or the web can now allow users to sign in via Google+.

"It’s simple, it’s secure, and it prohibits social spam. And we’re just getting started," said Google product director Seth Sternberg in a blog post [3].

Google has struggled in the past to explain exactly what Google+ is. It has also rejected the social network tag and has even previously jettisoned the description of Goog+ as a "platform", preferring instead to say that it's a "destination" website.

At the same time Mountain View has been slotting Google+ into many parts of the company's estate, forcing Google account holders to have a presence on the site if they want to subscribe to other google products such as YouTube or webmail offering Gmail, for example.

As for how the sign-in function compares with Facebook Connect, Sternberg couldn't resist bitching about the competition. He said:

Sometimes you want to share something with the world (like a high score), but other times you want to keep things to yourself (like fitness goals). With Google+ Sign-In and circles you decide who to share with, if at all.

In addition: Google+ doesn’t let apps spray 'frictionless' updates all over the stream, so app activity will only appear when it’s relevant (like when you’re actually looking for it).

"Frictionless sharing [4]" is something that Mark Zuckerberg has spoken about at length and indeed Facebook was rebuilt around this concept with the pre-IPO debut of Timeline - a transparent effort to pump more ad juice into its user data in a bid to please Wall Street.

On security, Sternberg said of the Google+ sign-in option for third-party apps:

If you sign in to Gmail, YouTube or any other Google service, you can now use your existing credentials to sign in to apps outside of Google. Just review the Google+ permissions screen (outlining the data you're sharing with the app, and the people who can see your activity), and you're all set.

Google+ Sign-In also comes with the protections and safeguards you’ve come to expect from your Google account (like 2-step verification), so you can always sign in with confidence.

Google+ - in essence a user-profiling system which relies on its users provision of their true identity credentials - will soon become part of the Google Play service, which was previously the chaotic Android Marketplace.

Meanwhile, those wishing to manage their signed-in apps via Google+ can't do so at the moment as the plus.google.com/apps [5] webpage is currently displaying a 404 error. We're confident Google will fix this soon.

Google has claimed that as of December last year, 135 million users were "actively" using Google+. ®