Google Plus, facebook killer

[sgreger1]

I like it to, as more adopt it we shall see. I mean it is not even public release yet, it is invite only so not bad for that. My big kudos for it is of course tight integration with other google products, particularly Picasa. The privacy features are much better than facebook as well. The one thing that is odd though is someone can add me to one of their circles without any say so from me.

Ken

They can add you without your permission (it's just like following you on twitter), but you can choose what they get to see. People who add you without your permission can only see stuff you post to "public". Whenever you post/share something, it asks which circles you want to post it to, if you choose "Family" circle only, than only those in your family circle will be able to see it, and only if you choose "public" can strangers see it. So people adding you is of no consequence to you at all, and they only get to see the things you choose to share with the public.

[sgreger1]

Re the privacy issue, I'm already a bit irked by gmail scanning my email content to target advertising, and this puts me off google+ somewhat.

At least with facebook you can make everything totally private with a bit of clicking effort. Google just seem to be getting too intrusive, claiming that targeted advertising is a value-adding service, and not blatant snooping.

All who are concerned about targeted advertising should do the following:

*Go download free software called "Ghostery".

Once installed (it is an extension that works on any browser, PC or Mac), it will show youa list of who is following you every time you visit a website, and also gives you the option to block if you choose. While watching hulu, reading the news etc there are usually a good 5-8 tracking services that are recording what you are doing and then using that data for targeted advertising. With Ghostery, it will tell you who is watching you, what they are recording, and what they are reportedly doing with the info, then it gives youa chance to block them. Once you block that company once, it won't be able to follow you on any other websites either as Ghosterly takes care of that.

For example, snuson has 2 software programs following you, one which is used for page analytics/statistics (provides the host with info on how many pageviews,how many people view snuson etc), and another one which is for the little bar under each post that allows you to share on facebook etc. You can block both of those and after blcoking once it will never folow you again.




Re: Google. - Do not be fooled, all of these companies are tracking/reading your shit, that is unavoidable. If you do not like it than please exit the itnernet stage right. What I like about Google+ is that it allows degrees of seperation, so you can choose which circles can see which content and vice-versa allows you to filter out what you see on your wall. So if you have an annoying person who just posts about what they ate for breakfast all day or posts random bible quotes, you can put them in the circle for people you want to ignore and then only go read what they are saying when you choose to, they won't be able ot spam up your wall. But there is no real privacy in any social network, as social networks are inherently designed to get you to give up information.

[truthwolf1]

I tried that Pandora radio and all of a sudden it showed people I know from Facebook who like the same song!!

THIS WHOLE AI thing is going to get weird!!!!

[devilock76]

I trust Google more than facebook. That might be misplaced, but I have faith in Google's intentions. I don't care if a computer scans my email to generate ads. That's how Google makes a lot of their money. There is no free lunch, and I'd rather pay Google for my food than most companies.

A better option is open sourcing things, and there's already a private, open source facebook competitor, but it requires thinking, and that's not the average facebook user's forte :^D To make things easy, someone has to do the work, and they'll expect to be paid for their effort.

I am of the same opinion regarding support of Google efforts. I personally think google has done more in the way of internet and mobile offerings to benefit the small business than any other web entity to date. In addition the tools they provide for paying corporate entities are given for pretty much free to educational entities.

Yes data mining is occurring. But if you think you can go anywhere on the internet and avoid it in this day and age then you are delusional. So I prefer the way google does it which at least seems to provide me more relevant annoyance ads than completely irrelevant.

Ken

[wadetheblade]

I'm on now, Stewart I added you as a friend this morning, user name Wade Stringfellow

[lxskllr]

Re the privacy issue, I'm already a bit irked by gmail scanning my email content to target advertising, and this puts me off google+ somewhat.

At least with facebook you can make everything totally private with a bit of clicking effort. Google just seem to be getting too intrusive, claiming that targeted advertising is a value-adding service, and not blatant snooping.

I trust Google more than facebook. That might be misplaced, but I have faith in Google's intentions. I don't care if a computer scans my email to generate ads. That's how Google makes a lot of their money. There is no free lunch, and I'd rather pay Google for my food than most companies.

A better option is open sourcing things, and there's already a private, open source facebook competitor, but it requires thinking, and that's not the average facebook user's forte :^D To make things easy, someone has to do the work, and they'll expect to be paid for their effort.

[devilock76]

I like it to, as more adopt it we shall see. I mean it is not even public release yet, it is invite only so not bad for that. My big kudos for it is of course tight integration with other google products, particularly Picasa. The privacy features are much better than facebook as well. The one thing that is odd though is someone can add me to one of their circles without any say so from me.

Ken

[muddyfunkstar]

Re the privacy issue, I'm already a bit irked by gmail scanning my email content to target advertising, and this puts me off google+ somewhat.

At least with facebook you can make everything totally private with a bit of clicking effort. Google just seem to be getting too intrusive, claiming that targeted advertising is a value-adding service, and not blatant snooping.

[rickcharles606]

Well, I'm liking Google + thus far, but the issue I'm having is that not too many of my friends are using it yet. I've sent the invites, we'll see what happens. I do like how it gives you the option of who you want to share certain things with. I am concerned that big broth..I mean Google is building some sort of behind the scenes profile or dossier on me. Thanks for the invite ;-)

[devilock76]

K, sent invites to all those who requested them. They should be in your inbox now. Sorry for the delay, I was at the casino all weekend and only had access to the internet through my phone and I can't add people from my phone so had to wait till I got home.

Enjoy!

Let me know if any of them don't work or if you need clarification on the process and how to sign up.

I did not get one, but I note the google + page says they exceeded capacity.

I did send you a PM with my address.

Ken

[muddyfunkstar]

I'm all for google+ in theory, it sounds great, and I'm going to try it out.

I use facebook quite a bit for keeping in touch with friends, even though I don't care much for it. I've pretty much locked it down privacy-wise, and no longer get the amount of crap I used to (farmville, pirates, etc); but it still bugs me that I need to use it. I quit it a while ago, and after a few months realised that I'd been missing out on invites because people were using facebook only to arrange social activities, so I re-opened my account somewhat begrudgingly.

I know that if I was join google+, I'd still have to maintain a facebook account because not everyone I know will switch overnight. It sucks basically, I dislike having a use a website I don't want to use, but I dislike missing out on stuff my friends do more.

I've talked to friends about it, and most of them feel the same way - they only use facebook because everyone else does, and it's easy to keep in touch with people, even though the whole interface and privacy thing is a concern.

Meh. Modern life = rubbish.

[sgreger1]

Anyone that has an extra invite, maybe I could haul it away for you. No charge.

I'll send you an invite if you PM me your email address. I promise I won't sign you up for a bunch of fetish porn and/or PP's newsletter (which is also fetish porn).

[sgreger1]

K, sent invites to all those who requested them. They should be in your inbox now. Sorry for the delay, I was at the casino all weekend and only had access to the internet through my phone and I can't add people from my phone so had to wait till I got home.

Enjoy!

Let me know if any of them don't work or if you need clarification on the process and how to sign up.

[devilock76]

Something indirectly related. I just installed WinZip on my machine, and Google Chrome was installed automatically, and set itself as the default browser. I didn't see any opt-in or opt-out for that! I'm not too upset about it, but I don't think that should have happened...

Chrome is my preferred browser. So if you like it no big deal.

I have noticed that happening more and more with Winzip. Most of the time it is embedded in the install options and you have to pick through a custom install tree to sort it out. When on a windows machine I have opted to install WinRAR instead. For my purposes I have been happy for that shift.

Ken

[AtreyuKun]

Anyone that has an extra invite, maybe I could haul it away for you. No charge.