Google Plus

Change is disruptive. That is a tautology, a Yogi Berra-ism. Google Plus is a highly disruptive technology, and it frightens me, but then again, I love roller coasters.

The first thing I noticed was a subtle change to my blogger account. Gone were the buttons such as sign in from the top bar, so I hovered over and noticed "blocked" verbiage. Had I violated some copyright law? Had someone hacked into my account? Not one to simply accept a happening as "truth," I went to my Google Account and found that it was possible to enter through a "back door." So my blog hadn't been blocked? The new door was through the pull down menus. I could still check my stats. Phew!

Google wanted me to try out G+ and I had a little time this morning, so I ventured in. Whoa! Google wanted me to share my Picassa albums! Google wanted me to share my face! Sharing my face with the public is something I prefer to avoid, even though I am a public person. What ever happened to privacy?

Paranoid about facial recognition, paranoid about robots, paranoid about government and non-government snooping, paranoid about leaving behind a trail of bread crumbs for an intelligent seek and destroy machine intent on silencing me, I shared my Facebook pic. The machine didn't like my half share share and queried: "That's not a face. Are you sure?" Just the point! The propensity for being vague is an evolved trait! A prim Victorian Brit might have have wondered, "What ever happened to manners?"

The lure of Google+ is incredible power to quickly hook up with people and communicate. The danger of Google+ is the possibility of randomness, and an erosion of privacy. Whatever happened to privacy?

The sharing of Picassa albums can be disabled. There are ways to limit how profiles are shared? I was slow to add family and friends. Scary!

Does Google want to revoke my Poetic License? Am I being a Luddite?

It's going to take some getting used to the new Google. The circle concept seems brilliant, but so far, I'm but a pebble without a ripple. Nobody in any circles. Not sure what to do! Not sure how it works! Awesome!