The problem I have with Google and YouTube is not that they were once separate entities, but that they have come together and become very confusing. Creating a page for me on Google+ without asking was just the start. For months it was convincing me to use my real name on my youTube channel – something I didn’t want to do, but in a moment of weakness, clicked through by accident and it created a whole new page on Google+ for the RF channel, split my preferred email address away from the channel and made me a whole new email address. Coupled with the fact the channel is Random Fury! but all URLs end in …/toxicrf, I don’t know what is what anymore. The account settings for your Google account are a nightmare to navigate, and the ones on Google+ are also horrendous – and I hate that the two seem so damned intermingled – half the time I’m not sure what I’m editing. If I could just delete those accounts I don’t use, and set my preferred email address to be my primary YouTube email address, that’d be great.
I’m actually considering throwing away my Google/Google+/YouTube account because it’s so damn convoluted. It would be easier and less complicated just to admit defeat and start from scratch with one name, one email address, one identity. Ah, it’s actually giving me a headache just trying to work it all out.
Microsoft, on the other hand, have managed to keep me using an email address that I created maybe 12 years ago simply by adding things instead of trying to foist their whims and social networks upon me. Xbox Live was a major addition, gotta have somewhere to put all those Gamerscores. Populating my contacts list on my Windows Phone with Facebook integration was great too. One account that works across everything – and it sure does actually work.
