I've seen this question come up a few times. Why use Google Plus? Heck, if it's just a Facebook clone, why not continue to use Facebook? I started to write a long answer to this question on a friends profile on Google Plus, and thought it was better suited for a blog. So, here goes!
PrivacyThis can't be stressed enough. So, I'll say it once more. Privacy!
Facebook has a really bad reputation for not caring much for user's privacy. There's even a Wikipedia Article all about this! Here's a few (kinda) quick items to get you thinking about Facebook's stance on privacy.
- Facebook cooperates with government search requests. This means if the government goes to Facebook and says "We wanna look for child predators. Give us user information." Facebook smiles and hands it over. That's not so bad right? I mean, child predators are dirty evil stinky people that should be wiped from the earth. But we have a Fourth Amendment (illegal search and seizure) for a reason. OK, I'll try to stay out of the political side, that's another blog, but the basic is, the Facebook shares your personal and private information with the government, with out your consent.
- How does Facebook make money? They sell information about you. We're not talking about anonymous aggregate data. We're talking about personal specifics. "Aaron Dougherty likes Star Wars," "Aaron Dougherty lives in Henderson, NV." Advertisers like this 'cause now they can send me ads for a comic shop down the street. But it's also very dangerous information to be floating out there on the internet with out your oversight.
- It seems about every 4 to 6 months Facebook changes something, to add a new feature. That's nice and all, I like progress. But this new feature inevitably has security disabled. There are three reasons for this. 1) Facebook employees are inept, and don't even think about security, 2) Facebook executives intentionally lower security in hopes of selling more personal data, 3) Facebook knows that only 10% of its members actually check their security, so why not err on the side of money?
What's worse about this lack of privacy of new features, is a new feature is often simply an upgrade or change of an existing feature. You may have felt secure having set a high level of security on a feature (or all of them!) then Facebook will change or upgrade that feature. But when they do this, they don't respect your old security settings. They simply default it back to no security.
Google, like Facebook has developed a reputation when it comes to security. Unlike Facebook, their reputation is one of success. Google knows it's an internet powerhouse, and it, like Facebook makes the vast majority of it's money from knowing information about you. Google knows more about you than Facebook ever will. But they don't abuse this power. Instead of selling information about you. They provide advertisers a way to get to you with out knowing anything about you.
Google Plus is no different. From the start it has done a great job a securing the user's sense of security. By default your information is not shared with anyone. Here's a peek at the default settings in Google Plus.
Google Plus is no different. From the start it has done a great job a securing the user's sense of security. By default your information is not shared with anyone. Here's a peek at the default settings in Google Plus.
- The only people who can post on your "wall" are the people who you are not only following, but have grouped in a circle. Contrast to Facebook, where the default is anyone can post to your wall unless you block them. Only let friends post to your wall? Well things you are interested in can post to your wall too, unless you block them. I liked the movie The Forgotten, but I don't like seeing my wall fill up with posts from a 10 year old movie.
- By default, no one can see your posts. You have to designate who can see it (That's easily set to "Public," if you're not concerned). Got a picture of you drunk from that party last night? Share it with only your friends. Then your boss (or prospective employer) can't just look you up and figure you can't sell used cars because you had fun at a party once. Contracts to Facebook where your posts are by default public. Not just to your friends, but the entire Internet.
There have been many cases where an employer will look up a prospective (or existing) employee on Facebook, and make hiring decisions based on what they find there. - Sparks (Your interested) are private, and instead of a setting to make them public is simply a message letting you know that they're private. Google won't even let you hurt your security. Contrast again to Facebook who actively use interests as a data point to sell to advertisers. Heck, it wouldn't surprise me if that's why they came up with it in the first place. Not because the community would find it interesting, but because there was a way to make money off it.
Circles
In their simplest form, circles are groups. Everyone's got them. Not special right? Well, add Google innovation into them, and they actually become really cool!
- Privacy (OK, I lied. Now I'm taking that horse's soul glue and jumping up and down on it). No, but really. Your posts can be made available to certain circles. So, like with the party example above, Instead of just posting that funny picture of you at a party, that could be misinterpreted by an employer, you make your post visible to one or more circles. Like maybe, Real Friends only. Now your employer will never find it, nor will it creep out your grandma.
- Priv... Just kidding. As I alluded to above. There's likely information that you don't want to go to certain people. It's not just about public/private. It's about who among your friends can see it or want to see it. Have you heard about the latest Star Wars game? Well, people in my Star Wars Fan circle may be interested, So might people in my Gaming circle. But probably not the people in my Family Circle, nor in my Church circle.
- Ever look through your Facebook wall, and see posts from an old high school acquaintance, that you had a few classes with about their kids doing normal things. Yeah, I'm sure they feel proud that their 3-year-old kid likes to play on a swing, and I bet their current close friends that actually have met the kid care, and enjoy updates. But I do not care! In fact, I'd rather just block that person. Not that their a bad, or even annoying person. But their posts about their lovely kid means as much to be as a slideshow about paint drying.
To sum it up, with less rant. Circles means I see less unimportant information on my "wall." Now when that old high school acquaintance post something about a reunion, or a major event in their life, I'll actually notice, and care. - A side effect from posts being limited to circles is, people are starting to discover, better and more meaningful communication between friends. As people start to limit who can see their posts, it has an additional effect, of people only reading what's interesting to them. And when you filter through less garbage, you pay attention more to what's going on. Consider these two scenarios:
- I post an article about a new game to my gaming group. Someone in that group responds to it. Well, everyone that got the post will likely be interested in following and contributing to that conversation, as they are all identified gamers.
- I post an article about how much I like Joe Politician (he's no longer just a plumber!) publicly. The comments on the post are emotional, and likely uninformed. "What? Joe is an idiot!" If this inspires any conversation, it's likely to be a flame war.
- Perhaps another permutation of above, but an important one. You can hide information from certain groups of people. Note: there is no explicit way to exclude a group. Personally, I like to read The Onion, and Cracked.com. The language and occasional NSFW content doesn't bother me at all. But, most of my family would be bothered by it. I never really felt comfortable about posting those articles to my wall. I read some articles that had me laughing so hard I cried, and I knew my friends would do the same, but my family might want to look away, and wish they never stumbled upon even the title of the article, let alone the contents. So again, circles to the rescue!
- People act differently with different groups. It's a fact, look it up. Or just think about the language you use at your grandma's house vs the language you use at your friend's house. Or think about the conversation topics at the dinner table vs the conversation topics at the local club. Circles lets you be who you are, with the right people.
I can post that cute cat video to my family, who all love cute cats.
I can post that crude article making fun of Noah's Ark to my friends.
I can post Rihanna's latest single to my friends from the Club.
