Google+?

[JoeZhang]

Yeah, it's also providing a handy means for sharing photos with family - all my stuff is already in picasa* and now the photos are shared with the family circle.


* Picasa still pisses me off that privacy levels have to be set "per folder" rather than picture - flicka's system is better.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

Well, I haven't been back over there since I set up my account, but I sure hope there is a way to prevent people you haven't approved or don't know from following you.

I understand that you can tailor your audience for certain posts with the circles thing...but I don't really get how your privacy will be maintained when anyone who wants can follow you...and (I assume) see all of your profile info.

Anyone can follow you, but you can hide nearly all information from people who you aren't following. There's unfortunately not a global change option so you have to set each item individually. But if you want, you can set everything to only be seen by one of your circles and then only share everything you post with just that circle. The entire world can still follow you but they won't see a single piece of information beyond your name if that's what you want. You can even set it so that people who are in your following circles don't see anything in your profile.

Like Facebook, you can preview your profile to see what it looks like for other people which helps when customizing it.

Okay. Thanks very much for the info. I'll have to do that. Assuming I ever use the thing for anything other than a news feed.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Mark Zuckerberg (founder/CEO of Facebook) quits Google+ over privacy concerns. You can't make this stuff up...

 

[SPCTRE]

^ lulz

There is a "public" option that will show your post to everyone, or you can select particular circles, or just one circle. I like the whole concept, really. I can finally have friends and co-workers on there, if I feel so inclined. They just get tossed into the circles where nothing interesting will be exposed.

Exactly. My boss and immediate superior is one of my Facebook friends, so yeah, I'm definitely getting my circles on

 

[Arrqh]

Mark Zuckerberg (founder/CEO of Facebook) quits Google+ over privacy concerns. You can't make this stuff up...

He didn't actually quit, he just hid the bit of his profile that lets you see who is following him. He also hasn't shared any posts publicly either!

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Mark Zuckerberg (founder/CEO of Facebook) quits Google+ over privacy concerns. You can't make this stuff up...

He didn't actually quit, he just hid the bit of his profile that lets you see who is following him. He also hasn't shared any posts publicly either!

Right, my mistake. Took my headline from Slashdot. I should've known better!

 

[Arrqh]

My days of not taking Slashdot seriously are certainly coming to a middle

 

[SPCTRE]

If anyone would like to add me on G+: gplus.to/SPCTRE

 

[SmoothieX]

Google+ is awesome. I love it. Makes Facefuck look so 2007, not that I ever joined anyway.

 

[Gaith]

Actually, I hope Google gets social networking right, for once. Facebook could use the competition.

From the world's biggest email/documents/search/video provider? That's sort of like saying you'll be buying up as many U2 albums as you can, because Coldplay could use competition.

I went through the whole Facebook post options for selecting on specific recipients, clicked on the three names and posted, thinking only they would see it (not because I didn't want others to see it, but simply because it applied to them and I thought my other friends wouldn't be interested).

If you had wanted to only have those three friends see the note, you'd have seen the obvious, clearly-marked option. It works!


Myself, I've got no interest in another social network. I have a few middle-aged/adult FB friends, but they lumped together in one group and can barely see anything but the option to message me; everyone else gets full access. How do I hide things from employers and parents? Simple: I don't friend them, because they're not my friends, they're my employers and parents, respectively.

 

[SPCTRE]

How do I hide things from employers and parents? Simple: I don't friend them, because they're not my friends, they're my employers and parents, respectively.

No, you don't friend them because you're an asshole, that's different

I kid, of course. I agree that FB's privacy and post transparency options are fully capable of doing basically anything you can do with G+'s circles, but G+ simply does a way better job of presenting the user with a highly intuitive interface.

Facebook looks dated and clunky by comparison. Also, I don't have any privacy concerns regarding Google Inc. as a company and service provider.

They already know everything there is to know about me

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Actually, I hope Google gets social networking right, for once. Facebook could use the competition.

From the world's biggest email/documents/search/video provider? That's sort of like saying you'll be buying up as many U2 albums as you can, because Coldplay could use competition.

You should work on your analogies.

As companies, Google and Facebook have done very different things. Google's focus has been primarily on search while Facebook has only ever been a social networking service. Google has made multiple attempts at breaking into social networking, all of which failed to take off. Facebook has long been lacking any real competition in their particular style of social networking, and it would take a company like Google that has a massive, entrenched user base to really give them a run for their money.

 

[DarthTom]

Facebook has long been lacking any real competition in their particular style of social networking, and it would take a company like Google that has a massive, entrenched user base to really give them a run for their money.

I was thinking about it the other day that Microsoft really missed an opportunity to build in social networking into all of their office applications.

The other company that missed the 'facebook' money train was Yahoo. They had a 1/2 breed of what facebook is now years ago with their instant messenger service.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Facebook has long been lacking any real competition in their particular style of social networking, and it would take a company like Google that has a massive, entrenched user base to really give them a run for their money.

I was thinking about it the other day that Microsoft really missed an opportunity to build in social networking into all of their office applications.

The other company that missed the 'facebook' money train was Yahoo. They had a 1/2 breed of what facebook is now years ago with their instant messenger service.

Microsoft is run by morons who still don't get the Internet, much less any particular aspect of it. Were it not for their vast marketshare in desktop operating systems, they would be completely irrelevant.

 

[B.J.]

I know you can basically do private messages by sharing only with that person. And you can just type the name to find someone that's not in your circles. But what if that person has a common name? The list that pops up only gives the first 5 hits, and none of those are the right one. Any ideas how to get around that?

 

[SPCTRE]

Microsoft is run by morons who still don't get the Internet, much less any particular aspect of it.

So, much like Nintendo.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Microsoft is run by morons who still don't get the Internet, much less any particular aspect of it.

So, much like Nintendo.

Most of Nintendo's customers don't understand the Internet, either.

(I say this as a Nintendo customer nonetheless.)

 

[SPCTRE]

Microsoft is run by morons who still don't get the Internet, much less any particular aspect of it.

So, much like Nintendo.

Most of Nintendo's customers don't understand the Internet, either.

(I say this as a Nintendo customer nonetheless.)

Hey, let's exchange friend codes! Mine is X250121051050150150234580385145181249184184589

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

I really enjoy Google+'s interface, and circles (so easy to do granular sharing).

But I find I still don't spend as much time on G+, mainly because only some of my friends have migrated. They need to make it more "sticky" (I hate that term).

To me, there's a REALLY SIMPLE solution: Replace "Sparks" with "Google Reader feeds". Right now, it says SPARKS, and has a list of saved sparks. Simply swap it out so it's a list of your Reader feeds. Plus it makes sharing articles in your G+ much easier than even FB, since you'd be reading all your articles inside G+ to begin with.

 

[JarodRussell]

I just noticed that Facebook has renamed the menu item "Privacy Settings" to "Privacy Preferences". Legally, Facebook is now no longer bound to what you choose there.