Google Profile is something new, innocent enough it would appear, where you can fill out a little information about yourself; it's required if you want to share interesting stories you mark in Google Reader now.
But not everyone seems to think Google's intentions are good - Google Sneaks up on Identity Management
"..Another part of Google’s master plan has quietly debuted on a couple of their sites: Google Profiles. Most easily accessed at the moment through Google Maps (look for the “My Profile” link in the top menubar if you’re logged in to a Google account), they’re also currently integrated with Google Reader (”Settings” and then “Friends” will take you there). Google promises that Profiles will link up other Google products as well, though as yet they’re not saying which ones or how quickly this will happen."
Read/WriteWeb brings ups that Google hasn't explained why they need to have this information about us in the first place.
"..There are quite a few unanswered questions yet about this new service. For example, although the help page on Profile says “You control what goes into your Google Profile, sharing as much (or as little) as you’d like,” there appears to be no fine-grained control over this at all. Your contacts see everything, others see only your nickname, occupation, location, and links. If you want to share your photo publicly, you’re out of luck."
"…Finally, it’s disturbing to not quite know what the future plans are here. Google says a Google Profile “is simply how you represent yourself on Google Products” - but is that intended to remain true for all time? With the combination of Profile and Accounts, plus the social features recently added to Reader, plus other properties in the Google arsenal like Jaiku and Orkut, it’s entirely possible that Google is planning a run at being the social networking king. On the other hand, it’s also possible that they could shop the combination around to other sites as their own answer to Passport and OpenID - a universal web identity backed by a trusted brand."
My best guess is that Google Profile is part of Google's Master Plan, but they haven't yet explained the details of what that is, yet. Depending on weather you think Google's Master Plan is good or not, will depend on weather you want to fill out their profile.
I for one, don't really know for sure, and did end up filling out a profile.
