I have a Google Plus page; like a lot of people, I don’t tend to go there that often, because I’ve not yet found anything compelling. And, thanks to the latest changes that Google has made, giving it a new look, I’m even less likely to go there in future.
Because Google has made it just too much hassle to log in to their site.
I have a couple of Google accounts; the one that I use most is the one for my AdSense account, but my GooglePlus page is actually a different account, with my Gmail address; I can’t remember exactly why that happened – I think at the time it was open only to Gmail addresses, or something like that. Anyway, AdSense is on my ‘real’ email address, and I seldom use Gmail anyway.
Until the recent change, this didn’t make much difference. I tend to be signed in to the AdSense account most, but when I go to Google Plus, there used to be, alongside the offer to create a G+ account with the account I’m signed in as, the option to switch to another account. I could click that on the dropdown, select the Gmail account, enter the password, and I’d be in.
Not any more. This screen is what I see when I try to go to Google Plus now, when I’m signed in to my AdSense account:
The only thing I’ve done to that screenshot is blur the email address; there are no links off the page that I’m hiding. In case it makes a difference – but G+ isn’t so crucial I’m going to change my browser to find out – I’m using Firefox on the Mac.
What’s missing? There’s not only no switch account option, but there’s also no sign out link. Google knows I’m signed in to an account that doesn’t have a G+ profile. It wants me to create one, and that’s the only option. The About Google+ link tells me how wonderful it is, and has more links to information about G+, and to Google’s main pages. But certainly within a couple of clicks, I can’t get to a page with a signout link.
So, what I have to do instead is go back to my bookmarks, or the address bar, and navigate back to AdSense, then click Sign out. And then come back to Google Plus, and type the Gmail address and password for the account that I used when I created my Google Plus page.
And, frankly, that just makes me think, “Why the hell should I bother?”
Not sure if it will affect what you see, but google does support a form of multiple sign-in. More details at http://support.google.com/accounts/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1721977
The problem is that, although AdSense doesn’t officially support multiple sign in, on the previous version of Google Plus, since that did, I could indeed click my email address and choose a different account to sign in with, just like that help text says.
Now that option has been removed from the G+ start screen, making it harder for me to sign in without jumping through hoops.
It seems, frankly, lunatic to have done that. Why make it harder for people to log in to your site than you need to?