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Google+: Tools, Names, and Facebook
Several readers submitted stories about Google+ today. CWMike writes in with an article
about the lack of developer APIs from Computerworld
"Currently, external developers don't have any Google+ APIs or tools
to tinker with. A Google spokeswoman said, 'We definitely plan to
involve developers and publishers in the Google+ project, but we don't
have specific details to share just yet. Please
stay tuned.' The spokeswoman declined to say specifically if
Google+ will be compatible with the company's OpenSocial set of common APIs
for social networking applications."
Anita Khanna writes
"Facebook is trying real hard to block users migrating to
google+. Although the recently announced Google+ social platform is
still in private beta, it has generated enough excitement to have
Facebook making some preemptive measures. Shortly after the
announcement, Facebook made a peculiar change to their TOS that
resulted in the ban of popular Chrome extension Facebook Friend Exporter. Over the
weekend, another personal data migration tool, Open-Xchange, has also
been deactivated."
Finally, an anonymous reader notes that Google is requiring
real names for profiles, and may have already suspended some
users for using aliases.
Darn. :(
I was going to check it out, but if they're requiring real names, then I'm not going to use it.
it's okay, I can't sign up for an account anyway. Why you ask? It's because my email is hosted with google apps, and google apps doesn't support google profiles, which are required for google+. I'm the admin for the domain, so it's not a case of I haven't flipped a switch for myself and my users, it's a matter of google not offering support for it. I'd love to use google+, but as an adopter of other google services I find I'm left in the cold here. My google apps use is much more important to me than google+ is.
I trust Google vastly more than Facebook. I'm still not sure what, exactly, Facebook does with my data. Google on the other hand, tells me up front that they're going to datamine my information to use for advertising.
I'd much rather see ads for things I stand a chance of being interested in, than tampon ads for example. Additionally, Google hasn't had a major privacy issue (Buzz foolishness excluded) in 10 YEARS. Mark Zuckerberg was applying to Harvard 10 years ago, and Facebook has been much less than stellar with regards to personal information privacy.
So Google has a much better track record. This is, I think, difficult to dispute - but I'd be happy to read your argument.
I have developed a truly marvelous proof of this comment, which this signature is too narrow to contain.
Now that all of the Usual Suspects have crapped all over G+, Facebook, MySpace and anything more technologically advanced than a BBS running on a Commodore 64 or usenet...
If you hate social networking sites, then ignore them! Millions of people find them pretty damned handy. Like any other tool, there's good and bad, and no shortage of idiots and/or corporations that can make a good experience into a nightmare. Same is true of e-mail, or IRC, or plain old letter mail.
Of course maybe you're the guy who announced that he would never again write a letter or mail a check once he got his first piece of unsolicited junk mail from Publisher's Clearinghouse.
I genuinely am liking G+. It's early days yet, but it seems to do just the minimum that you would want in social networking, but without the layer upon layer of crap that Facebook has added over the years. Less is more!
Do I trust Google more than Facebook? At the end of the day, yeah, I do. I trust Google to archive my e-mail, but I wouldn't for minute give Facebook the same choice. It's not a black and white issue - there are some things that I will trust Google with, and a lot that their servers will never see. Likewise I do have Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts (and possibly an old MySpace account somewhere) but am pretty careful about how much information they can get their hands on. In Facebook's case it's the utter minimum.
But oooh! Privacy! That boat sailed a long time ago. If you think that you can be active on-line and maintain anything more than a limited amount of privacy you're dreaming. You're constantly creating a stream of data transactions on-line. You maybe able to limit those somewhat, but ultimately you're leaving behind a trail that will likely be around for years or decades. Deal with it - that's the reality of the time we live in.
Unless you're the guy who has refused to own a telephone for eighty years because you were pissed off about having your name and address published in the White Pages.
Finally I'll say a word about the G+ app for Android phones - it's one sweet little item, that seems to work flawlessly on my crappy Moto Charm.
Three Squirrels