Google accounts are infinitely useful for businesses. While I personally use Google for absolutely everything, it’s also necessary for a lot of our needs here at alligatortek. Some Google products that are 100% necessary for running your business’ website include:

• Analytics
• Webmaster Tools
• Adwords
• Google+
• YouTube
• Trends
• Places

All of their products are exceptional, but now you’re going to have to have to jump through a couple of extra hoops in order to get started with them. With every new Google account that you create, you’re now required to create a Gmail account and Google+ profile.

I can see where Google is coming from; all website owners would love to make people sign up for our sites. However, this goes against all best practices that have been established to date. Google doesn’t even offer the ability to opt-out of this registration.

It’s difficult to understand why Google requires the registration of a Gmail account, especially after Yahoo! opened more domains last year because of the lack of available email addresses on their primary domain. It looks like Google has a plan that we have yet to see.