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Shutting Down Google+ for Consumers

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Re: Shutting Down Google+ for Consumers

#171

Post by frereubu »

coldtea wrote: post #125
cronz wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea of circles sounds fantastic on paper but it's simply too much work for the common user. For most of the posts users would make, users would probably spend more time thinking about which circles to enable than actually writing the post. It's a headache and it leads to a poor experience, it feels like a hurdle, something you must do; it makes posting less natural. Facebook on the other hand offers the same fun…

> For most of the posts users would make, users would probably spend more time thinking about which circles to enable than actually writing the post. It's a headache and it leads to a poor experience, it feels like a hurdle, something you must do; it makes posting less natural. How low have we got, capacity wise, when this is even considered "a hurdle"? At one time, people had to walk to the TV to change the channels…

It's because it forces you to pick. Outside of the discrete friendship groups online, there's an ever-shifting on-the-spot calculation about who's around you and how much you want to say. One day you might feel like telling friend X while you're in the coffee shop together with just one other friend, the next day you might not feel so open in the bar for a variety of reasons. Add in all the variables about who else is around, how much beer you've drunk, whether you've just been paid, if the relationship with a partner is going well etc. and every situation is different in a very nuanced way. I'm not on Facebook now, but when I was I rapidly gave up on the idea of administering my friendship groups because it felt like I was bureacratising my friendships in a very unnatural way.

Re: Shutting Down Google+ for Consumers

#172

Post by drewfrank »

huebomont wrote: post #83
zdragnar wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? Sunsetting something is used outside of software. Hell, it's even used to describe temporary laws ("sunset law"). It's also used for brands and business policies. And, sure, it might not make the top list of 1000 words you might hear on the street on any given day, but it's also very easy to search for. That doesn't make it a weasel word.

It's absolutely a weasel word, because there are plenty of common and clear ways to say this. The only reason it exists is so companies don't have to use words that connote a lack of success.

I think it exists because it's a concise way to communicate "this is ending, and will end in a predetermined amount of time, but it has not yet ended" in the same manner that sunset indicates that a day is ending but has not ended yet.

Re: Shutting Down Google+ for Consumers

#173

Post by tomjen3 »

My family is using Google+ to coordinate and share internal news (because do you really want to friend your parents on Facebook?).

Given that they are going to close this down for us as consumers, what is our best alternative? I would rather not have to have the headache of running and maintaining software myself, but what options do you recommend?

Or do we just have to bite the bullet and set up the Shaftoe e-mail list?

Re: Shutting Down Google+ for Consumers

#174

Post by inferiorhuman »

buserror wrote: post #166

I used G+ a lot a few years back, and I did dozens of posts of logs of projects and so on... and then one day I wanted to refer to one of them to someone and discovered you can't search you own posts . That immediately stopped me posted anything. It's almost write-once, read never sort of medium. It's too bad, there were a few good ideas and so on, and I had a bit of traction of a few good 'circles' but I'm pretty su…

> I used G+ a lot a few years back, and I did dozens of posts of logs of projects and so on... and then one day I wanted to refer to one of them to someone and discovered you can't search you own posts.

I left Google Plus after Google Search kept turning up private posts that I had opted to remove from search.

Re: Shutting Down Google+ for Consumers

#175

Post by colordrops »

8ytecoder wrote: post #65
evgen wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no way Facebook would ever implement something like this. The whole point of the Facebook feed tinkering is to force you to wade through a river of shit to find the nuggets you are interested in. The feed algorithm is all about making that river just slightly short of unbearable, because the river is where they stuff all the ads. If they provided you with useful filters it would make the revenue opportunitie…

This is a very cynical view of things. I'm not a product manager - but I can't imagine one sitting in a room thinking about all the evil ways to make the feed harder for people to find relevant posts. I can, however, perfectly imagine a PM who is "extremely numbers driven" to look a bad version of the algorithm that increases the time users spend shifting through shit and assume that the algorithm is a huge success b…

Well to be frank I've been in these meetings and yes people do intentionally think of dark patterns. If people are willing to sit in war rooms to murder people and Wall Street board rooms to steal pensions, it shouldn't seem so unbelievable that someone could intentionally obfuscate a social media timeline. In fact they use more technical language, such as "engagement", to discuss these topics so that it seems less repugnant.

Re: Shutting Down Google+ for Consumers

#176

Post by ValentineC »

cromwellian wrote: post #8
sys_64738 wrote: post #3

They did this with Google Reader 5 years ago. I don't think you can trust the longevity of Google services beyond GMail and Google Search.

Well, hardly anyone was using it. How long should a company maintain something for free that not many people are using? Where's the sadness over the death of Apple Ping, or MobileMe?

> Where's the sadness over the death of Apple Ping, or MobileMe?

What useful features does MobileMe have, that iCloud doesn't? I just looked up the list of features and the only thing missing seems to be publishing a personal website with iWeb.

I don't know a single person using iTunes Ping, or heh, Game Center's social features.

Re: Shutting Down Google+ for Consumers

#177

Post by int0x80 »

ben174 wrote: post #34
jrrrr wrote: post #22

G+ didn't even get its own sunset announcement post; it was mentioned in passing from a post about _something else_. Poor G+.

I think that was by design. Trying to sweep it under the covers to avoid outrage. I share that article with friends and they're likely to read the first half of the headline and not bother reading it.

Of course it is by design. It is a blatant manipulation. "Protecting your Data". Come on!

Re: Shutting Down Google+ for Consumers

#178

Post by reitanqild »

mindcrime wrote: post #20

LOL, one more example of why one should never depend on anything from Google. developer adoption Gee, I wonder why? Maybe because they never released a usable write API and were basically just a little less developer-hostile than Twitter? G+ had a lot of potential, had Google chosen to truly embrace Open Standards, federation, and usable API's. As it is, they shot themselves in the foot by creating JAWG (Just Another…

It doesn't help that half of HN and I guess other communities as well decided to blame Google+ the social network for everything that was bad:

- linking their accounts (yep, bad)

- shuttering Reader (didn't care personally but I really doubt they calculated how much it would cost them in goodwill)

- etc

... and decided to use Google+ the social network as a target for all that frustration.

Google+ was really nice. And I'm gonna miss it.

Twitter? The place where I need to have 5 accounts to avoid spamming someone with things they don't care about?

Facebook? The place that 1.) Tries to make everything everyone puts into it public and 2.) makes large scale data harvesting possible and then say "didn't see that coming" after CA.

I've since been on Whatsapp (until Facebook bought it and destroyed the single reason why I was a walking billboard for it,) and later Telegran (don't like it either and I won't write anything there I cannot comfortably send on a postcard, but at least it is not proven yet that they will mine every ounce of metadata out of my connections and then try to kill me with spam, (including on my 2-factor address like Facebook will).

Mastodon? I don't know. Haven't tried yet. It might be brilliant but when I first heard about it it was presented as a twitter thingy and twitter is one of the more useless services I have a relationship with (of course, this is personal, for everyone who likes twitter that is more power to them I guess.)

Re: Shutting Down Google+ for Consumers

#179

Post by oculusthrift »

ilovecaching wrote: post #149

What's really striking about this to me is that Google didn't disclose the security vulnerability. Google is trying to cover it up by moving the ball from 'there was a breach' to 'we're shutting down G+'. This is why I'm super hesitant to be a Google fanboy. Facebook may have my social media info, but Google has my emails, all of my mobile data, access to a bunch of my assets through Google Domains, GCE etc. Scary st…

Sadly the strategy is working. not seeing much mention of breach on HN

Re: Shutting Down Google+ for Consumers

#180

Post by jefftk »

buserror wrote: post #166

I used G+ a lot a few years back, and I did dozens of posts of logs of projects and so on... and then one day I wanted to refer to one of them to someone and discovered you can't search you own posts . That immediately stopped me posted anything. It's almost write-once, read never sort of medium. It's too bad, there were a few good ideas and so on, and I had a bit of traction of a few good 'circles' but I'm pretty su…

For what it's worth, I see many posts at https://plus.google.com/+MichelPollet

(Disclosure: I work at Google, on other things)

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