MANILA, Philippines – Users of Google-related services may be in for a bit of change if they were expecting to distance themselves from being enveloped by the Google ecosystem.

A Wall Street Journal report notes that the company is using a controversial tactic to get increase Google+ visibility: making it a mandatory part of using a Google service.

According to the report, people who make an account to use Google services like Gmail or YouTube will also have a public Google+ made for them. While they can choose to use the account or not, the integration also means that your reviews on the Google Play store or your comments on YouTube are connected to your Google account and, in some cases, your Google+ profile.

While Google+ profiles do allow for users to change their settings to disallow the page from showing up in search results or otherwise disable or delete the profile itself, the profiles are set to public to begin with.

The Wall Street journal report also mentions that the information gained from using Google services is a potentially lucrative “mountain of data” for the advertising side of the company. Alan Osetek, president of Resolution Media, a company that helps marketers buy advertisements on Google, said the rate at which Google searchers click on ads, “have increased for his clients’ ads when they include information from Google+.”

While the Google+ tactic may end up turning off some, the potential benefits for the company may make it worth it. – Rappler.com