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Google Plus is still "invite only", and then too they're only adding a few people at a time. I just signed on, so if anyone wants invites, I'd be happy to send them out. I'll need an email address, which you can send me on a PM if you like.

Edited by softwareNerd
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Instead of friending people, you put them in one or more of your 'circles.' With circles, you can post things to just certain people and only view posts from certain people rather than everyone. Also you can put people in your circles without them having to put you in their circles.

The privacy and security settings are much better and much more accessible than Facebook. There aren't any annoying apps (yet, at least), and I think the layout looks better too.

googleplus.png

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I haven't heard much about it. What makes it better than Facebook?
I think it's early to say just yet. G+ needs to mature a bit, and third-party developers have to add stuff to G+ like they did with FB.

FB is the modern-day AOL... they want to control the look, feel and access to things. I hope Google makes their's more of a service that helps people share rather than a place where they do the sharing. For instance, why should people come to FB to play a game like Farmville or whatever? The social-networking function ought to be a service. Think "take over the world" and you'll fail; think "offer the best such service" and you might take over the world.

I also find it interesting that Google took the idea of FB groups (G+ circles) and made them more usable. it seems a small thing, but on FB many people keep out certain circles of family or real-life friends simply because they don't some of their worlds to collide. A service that makes that easy and natural has a big plus.

I'm also glad G+ lets me edit typos out of my posts.

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Yeah, apart from the "Circles" thing ( which I think is a great way to organize the people you add into one or more of four groups : Friends, Family, Acquaintances and Followers. This is better than lumping everyone into the category of "Friend" if you want to give different people access to your G+ page(s) for different reasons and without implying that everyone is neccessairly a friend ). Other than this and hte fact that you can post stuff ( I have not tried this yet, maybe this feature is implemented way better than FB), there is really not much there so far it would seem. But if I recall correctly, its in like its second week of beta, so one should expect this is change (possibly quite a lot ) eventually.

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I guess I'll give it a try once it's solidly out there. It's just another online thing to take time away from other stuff. Facebook will probably start to get more competitive and offer similar features soon enough though.

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Well, FB seems to be trying to compete already. It recently added video calling options (apparently, though I am not entirely sure how this works yet), it would seem partially in response to the fact that Google+ has a "10-way" video conferencing feature implemented now, or which they intend to integrate into Google+ at some stage.

There is talk that since Google has bought into Zygna (those responsible for bringing FB most of its massively popular games , such as FarmVille and the like), that they might try to offer somewhat similar offerings on Google+ at some stage. This may or may not be something FB would be concerned about, especially as there seems a fair chance Google would implement their game services without nearly the same level of bugs which FB has.

Of course, most of us probably do not care for FB games, and may find this distracting, and I would speculate that many other people would be inclined to agree. Keeping Google+ free of games may prove to be a good way to distinguish themselves from FB. Or at least to make the games less obstructive ( allow a "Games" Circle so that only players of those games get to see your updates on it and so forth?).

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They haven't released an API yet. My opinion of Facebook is that it is now mostly just a social network portal, where various other social networks can post to, forming a general stream of 'status updates' from multiple sources. Social networks have become very specialized now, such as foursquare, getglue, untappd, etc... Zuckerburg knows this and that's why a lot of the stuff used on Facebook, outside of messaging and chat, is third party from API. The Facebook team, it seems, hasn't done much in terms of adding content to the service since Places, which pales in comparison to the functionality of foursquare. The latest addition, Skype integration, is simply a continuation of API type integration.

softwareNerd: I disagree. Facebook has tried to become the modern day AOL, but that title has to go to Google. Google is the most visited domain and they make their own services or acquire others, in addition to trying to compete directly with Facebook.

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softwareNerd: I disagree. Facebook has tried to become the modern day AOL, but that title has to go to Google. Google is the most visited domain and they make their own services or acquire others, in addition to trying to compete directly with Facebook.

I believe he was talking about just the "walled garden" effect, not percentage of internet users. In what way is Google like AOL?
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Doug, are you saying that you have a problem with Google+? I am not exactly sure what you mean when you say that it has "joined my family of filters". If you do have issues with it, would you care to elaborate on what they might be?

I have not tried Diaspora, though I have heard of it in vague terms. What are the advantages of this one and do I need to ask for invites for this one as well?

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I do not trust anything G00gle. I have the same problem with G00gle as with AOL, M$, and all who would profit by compromising my privacy and security. Read Electronic Frontier Foundation EFF.org.

I have used, for instance, SCROOGLE Scraper https since they came on line. http://www.scroogle.org/ https://ssl.scroogle.org/index.html

Federated social networking may be described in the Wikipedia, as may be DIASPORA. I believe that there is an open invitation at poddery.com [email protected] We, DIASPORA and me, are still growing. I seem to have to have a defaced book account and a tweeter account but use them very charily.

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I do not trust anything G00gle.

Nothing Google? You don't even trust them to instantly answer your search queries? How about to provide a plethora of free, useful services, the usefulness of which are forever accountable to shareholders?

Not trusting Google is almost like not trusting the internet.

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I do not trust anything G00gle. I have the same problem with G00gle as with AOL, M$, and all who would profit by compromising my privacy and security. Read Electronic Frontier Foundation EFF.org.

I have used, for instance, SCROOGLE Scraper https since they came on line. http://www.scroogle.org/ https://ssl.scroogle.org/index.html

Federated social networking may be described in the Wikipedia, as may be DIASPORA. I believe that there is an open invitation at poddery.com [email protected] We, DIASPORA and me, are still growing. I seem to have to have a defaced book account and a tweeter account but use them very charily.

Ahh..what? I dont think that I know much about those people and whatever it is that they beleive in, but after having a quick look just now, they strike me as the sort of people that Richard Stallman might respect ( take this with a grain of salt by all means, as I said, I have not paid any attention to these people for very long and need to take more time to remind myself what exactly they are all about ). Which is rather worrying, as that they has about as much conception of "rights" as I have about how to construct my own galaxy. So what is your problem with Google and MS and for that matter AOL? Why have you decided that they are not at all trustworthy (or so it would seem)?

Edited by Prometheus98876
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So what is your problem with Google and MS and for that matter AOL? Why have you decided that they are not at all trustworthy (or so it would seem)?

It is unfortunate that I cannot reiterate my experiences on the web, that's why I tried to point to a site that shares my concerns but based on their own conclusions rather than on my experiences. Again, in a word, they wish to profit from abuse of my privacy and security. See http://epic.org/privacy/streetview/ for one global instance.
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Ummm...no? Google Street View is not not really an invasion of your privacy. If you are going to conduct your business out in "public" space, then you should not really complain if someone observes your activities , even if they are using cameras etc. It is not like you have some "right" to go around in "public" spaces without the right to being filmed, as long as there is not any initation of force involved. Perhaps if they broke into your home and started taking pictures, you might have a case, but as it stands, I dont really see that you can claim that Street View "abuses your privacy".

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Google+ seems very promising; I'm really looking forward to its future developments.

Circles, while they are a seemingly simple idea, manage to combine the advantages of both Facebook and Twitter, and give you greater but easier control over the content you share. I'm sure it will encourage me to be a lot more interactive than I am on Facebook.

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I am claiming nothing about Street View in particular, others are. Here is another instance; http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/science/7651086.html - hit number one of many from searching on "Google's best shot at muscling into a market".

I would have the Death's Door passage be my 'good fence', that makes good neighbors, and perhaps analogous to the Galt's Gulch camouflage field. Unfortunately Google Street View uses its economic might to peek over the fence with a camera and sell the data.

So, Objectively, is there an individual right to privacy, might it not be integral to the right to property? The protection of intellectual property is certainly controversial now-a-days.

We have only the rights that we defend. I will not willingly speak with a government agent, insisting instead that he establish his legalistic control over my person via reasonable articulable suspicion and/or probable cause.

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Well, I haven't missed TV. The internet is a tool and no more. If someone tries to sell me Web 10.0 when I was fine with Web 1.0, what am I missing? Believe nothing that you hear or read without verifying it yourself unless it fits your preexisting world view.

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I am claiming nothing about Street View in particular, others are. Here is another instance; http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/science/7651086.html - hit number one of many from searching on "Google's best shot at muscling into a market".

I would have the Death's Door passage be my 'good fence', that makes good neighbors, and perhaps analogous to the Galt's Gulch camouflage field. Unfortunately Google Street View uses its economic might to peek over the fence with a camera and sell the data.

So, Objectively, is there an individual right to privacy, might it not be integral to the right to property? The protection of intellectual property is certainly controversial now-a-days.

We have only the rights that we defend. I will not willingly speak with a government agent, insisting instead that he establish his legalistic control over my person via reasonable articulable suspicion and/or probable cause.

There is a right to privacy in the sense that individuals have the right to control access to their property and the government must have probable cause before searching an individual's property. But there is no "right to not have your street photographed." Google Street View initiates force against no one.

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