Interestingly we live in a world where people share stuff over the open internet and then worry about the privacy implications of their actions. With the spurt in the number of social networking sites available on the web, people are getting increasingly nervous about who gets to view their “I am feeling sleepy” posts or the pictures of their Chihuahuas. We had MySpace (Remember? The first big player in the social space. What a sad story), Orkut, Facebook and now the new kid on the block Google+.
I am barely four days old on the Google+ network and here are my first “privacy” impressions.
Google+ gets it mostly accurate when it comes to grouping your contact lists as per the social status they enjoy from your perspective. So it is now possible to post something on your Google+ profile that is visible to your first cousins and not to your workplace colleagues. In other words you can divide (with overlaps) your contacts into social circles. For instance, I have a social circle called “International Multi-cultural Acquaintances”. I understand this feature is available in Facebook as well by means of a well hidden option called “Lists”. However the big difference between Facebook Lists and Google+ Circles is that you have to click on the name of the list in Facebook and then start typing the message while in Google+ you type the message first and then select who gets to see it. I guess it is a matter of personal preference. I find Google’s way of managing this whole messy affair better than Facebook’s.
Also managing the social circles in Google+ is relatively easy thanks to a very intuitive user interface. Managing Facebook lists on the other hand is akin to solving an Integro-differential equation!
Having said that, I completely agree with the notion that “Social Grouping” is still a difficult concept to comprehend. Neither service is easy to understand as far as grouping the contacts is concerned. I have been reading a lot of articles on this issue since times immemorial and have listened to various user interface experts opining that whoever gets to nail this challenge will rule the world.
Here’s where I differ. Maybe it is true that if you ever find an easy way to manage the various perspective strata that your contacts belong to, you will be a hero. But wait a second! Have you tried doing this in real life? Is it really that easy in real life to manage?
Let us take a hypothetical scenario. You have a job. You have a family. You have your fair share of friends, acquaintances, enemies and stalkers. Now that you have bought a new apartment, you want to share this news with everyone. How do you plan to do it?
Option 1: Call each one of your friends/family individually and tell him or her about it. It takes a while but you are sure of who gets to know it. (They can whisper it to their neighbour. You have absolutely no control over it.)
Social Web Corollary: Post private messages to your friends and family individually. These posts are visible only to the recipient in question. (They can post it again on their space. You have no control.)
Option 2: Call for a get together. Invite your friends and family. Or wait for an occasion where everyone is present. Now get onto the podium and shout at the top of your lungs. All your friends and family members get the update instantly. (They can now go back and over a couple of beers share it with total strangers as far as you are concerned. Again, no control!)
Social Web Corollary: You get the idea. If not, stop reading this post and go back to the rock you’ve been living under!
Option 3: Go to the nearest election campaign meeting. Shove aside the speaker. Grab the mike and announce your update. Everyone knows instantly. Ensure CNN is covering the event live!
Social Web Corollary: Post a public note for the entire world to see.
Now, let us take a look at the first option. Whom to tell? How do you get the list? You have to prepare it – Most likely you will do it mentally and know instantly who should be getting the update. But it is still mostly a one on one information exchange at a time. It gets viral and everyone in your family gets the update. In this process quite a few people that you couldn’t care less about will also get to know about your new house. You can’t do anything about it. No privacy “setting” can actually prevent information leakage.
In the second option you have to grapple with the challenge of deciding who should be invited to the party! In the corollary, who should be invited to your social circle!
The truth is, most of these “issues” that are getting highlighted these days thanks to the mushrooming social networking sites are nothing new. You and I have been “solving” these issues day in and day out since our fifth grade. We just need to lean back, relax and use the same judgment criteria to group our online contact list. It is not an easy exercise. It has never been easy to understand which perspective strata our friends and acquaintances group into. It is incredibly difficult. In real life as well as on the internet.
So where’s the coffee? It is time to wake up and smell it.
The actual feature review of Google+ at a later point in time.
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