Google has confirmed that profiles will no longer be hidden as of July 31. This is no doubt part of the company’s larger plans to launch Google+, wherein they want to use the data from people in order to better refine their search methodology.
The purpose of Google Profiles is to enable you to manage your online identity. Today, nearly all Google Profiles are public. 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.”
Keep in mind that your full name and gender are the only required information that will be displayed on your profile; you ll be able to edit or remove any other information that you don t want to share, wrote Google. If you currently have a private profile but you do not wish to make your profile public, you can delete your profile. Or, you can simply do nothing. All private profiles will be deleted after July 31, 2011.
Source: google.com/support
