GreeN Growth - Asia-Pacific Business and Technology Report
GreeN Growth - Asia-Pacific Business and Technology Report
GreeN Growth - Asia-Pacific Business and Technology Report
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new ¬ableGoogle+ Gives the Rare Gift ofInternet Privacy to Social NetworkingBy Matthew Weig<strong>and</strong>Google Plus, or Google+, is the new socialnetworking offering from Google.This is the third timethat Google has triedto get into the socialIf you add someone toyour Google+ contact list,<strong>and</strong> put them in a circle,<strong>and</strong> they are not a memberof Google+ themselves, youcan still communicate withthem without any problem.networking sphere,<strong>and</strong> this time they mayhave gotten things exactlyright. Google+ isnot quite Twitter, but itdoes have some Twitterlikefeatures. Google+ is notquite Facebook, but likewise hassome Facebook-like features. It isnot quite a newsletter program,but has some components of oneas well. And it has something thatneither of those social networkinggiants have – extensive <strong>and</strong> easilycustomizableprivacy settings. Forthe segment of the online populationthat has always been reluctantto get into social networking due toa vague sense of unease about privacy,Google+ is probably going tosatisfy them completely.This is because Google+ is allabout privacy. As a social networkingplatform, you add contacts toyour contact list by name <strong>and</strong> emailaddress. Then, Google+ promptsyou to add these contacts to Circles.Google+’s Circles are the key to privacy online, <strong>and</strong> they are thereto ease to everyone’s worries. Default circles include Friends, family,<strong>and</strong> Acquaintances, but you can quickly add your own. Onepopular circle is Coworkers, <strong>and</strong> another is Online Friends. Sometimesyou have a funny picture of a cat that you want to share, butyou know that while your online buddies would probably love tosee it, your boss might not appreciate the humor involved. Yousimply post the picture to your Google+ stream, <strong>and</strong> select theOnline Friends circle. Then, only people who are in that circle willsee the hilarious cat photo.But things get much more interesting than that. Google+ can<strong>and</strong> does function similarly to Twitter. If you feel like sharing ashort message with the whole world, just like on Twitter, you canpost it publicly. Then, anybody who cares to look at your profile,or who has you in one of their Circles, will get the message. Anadvantage that Google+ has over Twitter in this case is that themessages can be longer than the 140 characters allowed there,which means you don’t have to mangle the English language toget your point across.If you only want to share a message with a select group ofpeople, you can choose only your Coworkers circle or your <strong>Business</strong>Contacts circle to share things with. So when you want totalk about your latest insights into better TPS reports, you canshare that with only the circles who care. And when you wantto share hilarious cat photos with your family, just post it tothe Family circle, <strong>and</strong> your boss at work will not be annoyedwith your attempt at humor, since he is in the Boss circle. Thisparticular functionality in Twitter would have saved AnthonyWeiner’s political career. He could have posted his public musingson Rex Ryan’s plans for Medicare to the Constituents circle,<strong>and</strong> he could have posted pictures of his ripped pecs to his Hottiescircle, <strong>and</strong> there would neverhave been any sc<strong>and</strong>al. For him,it’s a pity Google+ didn’t comeout last month.Like Facebook, Google+also lets you upload <strong>and</strong> showphotos on your profile. However,unlike Facebook, any photo thatyou upload to Google+ can only beseen by you until you share it withcertain Circles. This default privacyfunctionality goes quite wellwith Google+’s mobile application,which has the option to let you automaticallyupload every photo thatyou take with your phone. So youhave automatic backups for all thephotos you take, <strong>and</strong> they are availableonline for anything you’d liketo do, but not everyone has to seethem. You can show wedding photosto your Family circle, photos ofyour coworkers slacking off to yourBoss circle, <strong>and</strong> never the twainshall meet.One important difference betweenGoogle+ <strong>and</strong> Facebook is theabsence of a Wall. This is likely partof the emphasis on privacy thatGoogle+ obsesses about, becausehaving other people post r<strong>and</strong>om messages to your wall that anyoneelse can then see could create some embarrassing situationsthat it would be better to avoid. Just another privacy-related tweakthat puts Google+ ahead of the other social networking optionsavailable today.But one unique feature that no other social network offers reallyshows off the power of Google+. If you add someone to yourGoogle+ contact list, <strong>and</strong> put them in a circle, <strong>and</strong> they are not amember of Google+ themselves, you can still communicate withthem without any problem. When you post a message or sharesome photos with the Circle they are in, Google+ asks you if youwould like to email the people who are not yet part of Google+.Therefore, you can still send those wedding photos to your gr<strong>and</strong>parentseven though they are not hip to the latest computer-relatedshenanigans that you get up to. Most gr<strong>and</strong>parents are emailliterate, if not social networking literate, so it should be a breezefor you to stay in touch with them, now more than ever. Also, youcan take that stack of ten thous<strong>and</strong> business cards lying in a box inthe corner, enter them into Google+, <strong>and</strong> use it as a sleek businesscontact mailing list. Email messages sent with Google+ have botha link to join Google+ <strong>and</strong> an unsubscribe link at the bottom, soyou would not even be bothering people unnecessarily.Google+ combines existing online communication products togetherin the cleanest, most easily-usable interface yet seen online.Communication using Google+ is safe, private, <strong>and</strong> far-reaching.Even though the system is in beta now, <strong>and</strong> signups are hard tocome by, it is already showing itself to be the next-generation socialnetwork backed up by the largest <strong>and</strong> most customer-orientedonline company today. This reporter is definitely going to be usingit for the foreseeable future, <strong>and</strong> I hope to see you in one of mycircles soon! A-P50 | A-P BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY REPORT