Google"s limited launch of its Google+ social networking service has proven to be popular, at least among the lucky few who have had a chance to get invites to sign up for the service. But in order to get more people to sign up to use the service, Google is making a change in how it handles Google Profiles. Venture Beat reports that Google has made the decision to delete all private profiles from Google Profiles by the end of July.
While the help section for Google+ states that almost all of the profiles for the Google Profiles are already public, it adds, "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." While some users may not care for this viewpoint, keep in mind that Google only requires that your profile show your name and gender on your page. Other personal info that you can to post on your page can still be kept private. The Google+ service also has a feature that keeps your profile page from being picked up on search results from the Google web site.
Earlier today it was reported that Google plans to rename its Blogger and Picasa divisions as Google Blogs and Google Photos, respectively. This new move is suppose to help consolidate most of the various Google brands before the official launch of Google+.
Update: An earlier version of this story stated that Google was deleting private profiles from Google+. We regret the error.