WEBVTT - Google+ 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.960 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:08.880 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:17.919 tech stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone, 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:21.200 welcome to text stuff. My name is Chris Poette and 0:00:21.200 --> 0:00:24.280 I'm an editor here at how stuff works dot com. 0:00:24.320 --> 0:00:26.560 Sitting in a cross from me as always a senior writer, 0:00:27.600 --> 0:00:31.160 Jonathan Strickland. Your job's a joke, your broke, your love 0:00:31.240 --> 0:00:34.640 life's d o A. It's nice of you to share 0:00:34.640 --> 0:00:37.680 that with our friends. I thought so. So today we 0:00:37.720 --> 0:00:42.839 wanted to talk about a social network experiment that launched recently. 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:45.680 As of the recording of this podcast, we're recording this 0:00:45.760 --> 0:00:48.480 in July two thousand eleven, and not that long ago, 0:00:49.320 --> 0:00:52.800 Google made a an announcement that ended up taking at 0:00:52.840 --> 0:00:57.160 least the uh, the geek world by storm. Yes, definitely, 0:00:57.200 --> 0:01:00.400 and we've had a few requests, and I think Jonathan 0:01:00.480 --> 0:01:02.160 and I have decided that we'll go ahead and record 0:01:02.160 --> 0:01:05.000 a podcast about it now in self defense before too 0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:07.559 many other people ask us how it works. And also 0:01:07.760 --> 0:01:10.200 we should add that well, first of all, we're talking 0:01:10.240 --> 0:01:12.319 about Google Plus. In case you didn't read the title, 0:01:12.520 --> 0:01:14.760 that we're talking about Google Plus but I want to 0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:17.880 add a disclaimer at the beginning of this podcast, which 0:01:17.920 --> 0:01:23.440 is Google Plus is in a a beta a rapidly 0:01:23.480 --> 0:01:28.760 expanding beta program, uh, and could undergo massive changes and 0:01:29.200 --> 0:01:32.200 short amounts of time. So anything we talked about today 0:01:32.720 --> 0:01:36.080 may very well have be be different by the time 0:01:36.120 --> 0:01:38.400 this podcast goes live, although I don't I don't imagine 0:01:38.720 --> 0:01:43.160 things changing so significantly that they don't apply at all. 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:45.600 But it may be that there are some subtleties that 0:01:45.680 --> 0:01:47.960 we are not going to cover because they will have 0:01:48.120 --> 0:01:50.200 emerged between the time we record this in the time 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:53.600 it publishes. Yeah, because frankly, that's that's true of a 0:01:53.600 --> 0:01:55.800 good two thirds of our podcast anytime we don't talk 0:01:55.800 --> 0:01:59.240 about something in history. Yeah. But but with with something 0:01:59.280 --> 0:02:01.240 like this in particular, or when it's in a beta 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:04.040 format and a lot of people are testing it out. Um. 0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:07.000 And not only that, but the team behind it is 0:02:07.160 --> 0:02:11.480 listening to feedback and incorporating feedback into their changes. You 0:02:11.600 --> 0:02:15.520 have a rapidly evolving service that's going on here. So 0:02:15.720 --> 0:02:19.000 even though we might record something about say Facebook, and 0:02:19.160 --> 0:02:22.400 sure maybe some things will get tweaked in the Facebook 0:02:22.680 --> 0:02:25.440 uh service between the time we record in the time 0:02:25.440 --> 0:02:28.079 we published it might be minor. But with something like this, 0:02:28.080 --> 0:02:31.600 where it's truly experimental and people are implementing changes at 0:02:31.600 --> 0:02:36.880 a rapid pace, the change it's more noticeable. Yes, that 0:02:36.960 --> 0:02:38.600 being said, now that we get the disclaimer on the way, 0:02:38.639 --> 0:02:42.880 let's talk about Google Plus. Okay. So one of my 0:02:43.000 --> 0:02:47.400 favorite descriptions of Google Plus came courtesy of Molly Wood 0:02:47.639 --> 0:02:50.799 from c net, who said, Google Plus is like you 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:54.639 are at this uh, this really fancy party, and you're 0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:56.720 in a V I P section of the party and 0:02:56.760 --> 0:02:58.880 there are only a few people there, and everyone's excited 0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:02.239 to be there, and everyone's talking about being at the party, 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:07.240 and that's all that's happening. That's that's definitely an exaggeration, 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:10.200 and it's also paraphrasing, so that's not a direct quote. 0:03:10.200 --> 0:03:13.480 Molly would put it much more succinctly. But and it's 0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:16.440 it's also changed in the last couple of days. Right. 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:19.000 But but early on, if you were one of the 0:03:19.040 --> 0:03:21.960 few people who got into Google Plus, I was very 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:24.520 fortunate and that I managed to get an invite, uh 0:03:24.560 --> 0:03:28.720 and and joined pretty pretty early on. Yeah, it turns 0:03:28.720 --> 0:03:31.440 out I know a lot of people in the tech business. Um. 0:03:31.480 --> 0:03:33.680 But if you if you were in there early on, 0:03:33.760 --> 0:03:35.839 it felt like the people who were there were all 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:40.840 these mostly tech and geek culture folks. Yeah. So you 0:03:40.840 --> 0:03:42.920 had a lot of people who are from tech companies, 0:03:43.280 --> 0:03:46.080 including folks who are actually from Google, which makes sense, 0:03:46.080 --> 0:03:49.960 it's their product, right. You had people from other big 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:53.440 companies stuff like Twitter or Facebook, even we'll get into that. 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:56.240 And then you had a lot of tech journalists, so 0:03:56.640 --> 0:04:00.280 people like Leo Laporte, tom merritt Um later on, Molly 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:04.240 Wood and Brian Tong have seen it. Um I as 0:04:04.240 --> 0:04:06.440 actor who's a good friend of mine, He's he was 0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:09.720 also on there pretty early on. You had these folks 0:04:09.760 --> 0:04:12.080 who were kind of populating it, so it felt like 0:04:12.120 --> 0:04:14.320 a weird social network. It felt like a social network 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:17.720 that had been designed specifically for this tech geek world. Oh, 0:04:17.720 --> 0:04:20.480 you also had some geek celebrities, and I say geek 0:04:20.520 --> 0:04:24.400 celebrities in that geeks like me tend to think of 0:04:24.480 --> 0:04:27.960 them as amazing celebrities. So Felicia Day will Wheaten those 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:31.400 kind of folks. Um, So it kind of felt like 0:04:31.480 --> 0:04:35.200 a social network built for geeks. Now that's gradually changing us. 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:37.200 More and more people join in and we're starting to 0:04:37.200 --> 0:04:42.680 to slowly skewed toward a more quote unquote normal population. 0:04:43.279 --> 0:04:45.680 I use normal just in the sense of average as 0:04:45.680 --> 0:04:50.800 opposed to geeks are not normal. Yeah, and and I 0:04:50.839 --> 0:04:54.760 feel compelled to point out that again, like a number 0:04:54.760 --> 0:04:56.560 of topics on this show, this is one of those 0:04:56.600 --> 0:05:00.200 things that has been anticipated for quite some time. Um. 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:02.160 It's hard to tell a lot of these things too, 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:06.440 things like the Apple iPad and Google Plus and things 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:09.200 like this that people say, oh, well, you know, Google's 0:05:09.240 --> 0:05:12.240 working on a social network that's aimed to take down Facebook, 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:14.880 and they talk about it for months and months and 0:05:14.960 --> 0:05:19.320 sometimes years, and you start going, yeah, happened, sort of 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:21.880 like Spotify coming to the United States, which also just 0:05:21.960 --> 0:05:25.719 recently happened, but for for a long time. Uh. Again, 0:05:25.800 --> 0:05:27.080 this is one of those things that I've heard a 0:05:27.080 --> 0:05:30.440 lot of technicalists called tech unicorns. Yeah. These are like 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:32.719 the white iPhone for a long time was the tech unicorn. 0:05:32.800 --> 0:05:35.159 The iPad was a tech unicorn for a long time. 0:05:35.240 --> 0:05:40.120 These are apples streaming iTunes services, which is still still Yeah. 0:05:40.160 --> 0:05:43.440 These are things that everyone quote unquote knows is coming, 0:05:43.600 --> 0:05:46.880 but it hasn't arrived yet, and it maybe years before 0:05:46.880 --> 0:05:49.040 we ever get to it. And ever. Yeah, some of 0:05:49.080 --> 0:05:51.680 these are some of these turned into vaporware, right, tech 0:05:51.760 --> 0:05:55.320 Unicorn vaporware. The relationships pretty tight, Yeah, Duke Nukelen forever 0:05:55.839 --> 0:06:01.000 long time tech unicorn. We will withhold commentary on what 0:06:01.240 --> 0:06:06.520 actually eventually published anyway, But so let's let's kind of 0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:09.440 talk about sort of the the we've talked about why, 0:06:09.920 --> 0:06:12.320 how people wanted to get in. Uh we a lot 0:06:12.320 --> 0:06:14.240 of people wanted to get in and couldn't get in 0:06:14.720 --> 0:06:18.599 because they didn't have enough invites. Um. The the expansion 0:06:18.600 --> 0:06:21.119 of Google Plus has been pretty impressive to watch over time. 0:06:21.600 --> 0:06:22.919 You want to say something, well, no, I was just 0:06:22.920 --> 0:06:25.800 gonna say that they're in between the tech unicorn. Um. 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:28.520 It's one of those things. And at least in my opinion, 0:06:28.520 --> 0:06:31.839 where Google Plus it was so we've heard it for 0:06:31.880 --> 0:06:33.760 so long, it's like it's hiding in plain sight that 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:36.359 they just went, oh, here it is, and we all 0:06:36.440 --> 0:06:40.560 kind of went. Google Plus kind of launched without a 0:06:40.600 --> 0:06:43.279 whole lot of fanfare from Google. But it turns out 0:06:43.279 --> 0:06:46.480 Google didn't need to provide fanfare that was provided by 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:48.919 that community of users I was talking about earlier, because 0:06:49.480 --> 0:06:53.039 that that that same group of early adopters who are 0:06:53.080 --> 0:06:57.120 passionate about trying stuff out, are really passionate about sharing information. 0:06:57.600 --> 0:07:02.360 So these adopters served as the the champions of Google Plus. 0:07:02.560 --> 0:07:05.279 Google didn't have to say it anything. Really, they showed 0:07:05.279 --> 0:07:08.560 off a demo um, they explained the concept and that, 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:11.880 and they let everyone else take over. And really, Google 0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:15.440 didn't just release and watch. They released, watched and listened 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:19.120 and implemented changes. Which that's kind of where I think 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:22.640 a lot of the tech enthusiasts have really kind of 0:07:22.760 --> 0:07:24.960 latched onto Google Plus because they're like, they're not just 0:07:25.120 --> 0:07:26.920 giving us this, They're listening to what we have to 0:07:26.920 --> 0:07:29.840 say and they're taking that into consideration. So instead of 0:07:29.880 --> 0:07:33.760 it being some sort of ivory tower where products come out, 0:07:34.240 --> 0:07:37.560 but it's a one way street, right, you know, they're 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:39.640 they're providing a service, but they're not listening to what 0:07:39.680 --> 0:07:42.000 we have to say. We just take whatever they're giving us. 0:07:42.680 --> 0:07:45.440 Google is more of a two way street. Like you 0:07:45.520 --> 0:07:48.040 really feel that the people at Google are listening. Now, 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:51.280 they may not incorporate all the changes you think need 0:07:51.360 --> 0:07:53.920 to be there because it doesn't match their vision of 0:07:53.960 --> 0:07:59.280 what this service ultimately will do, but at least they're listening. Yeah, Ultimately, 0:07:59.680 --> 0:08:02.800 you know, all of us have our own preferences and 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:05.360 choices we want to see in the product. And so 0:08:06.200 --> 0:08:08.280 Google is not going to make all of us happy. 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:11.280 And you know, those of us it does make happy, 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:13.560 it won't make us completely happy because well, we'll be 0:08:13.880 --> 0:08:16.880 looking for one particular thing or two particular things and 0:08:18.000 --> 0:08:21.120 maybe you know, that's just a few people. And Google 0:08:21.200 --> 0:08:23.160 is not gonna change it just for a few people. 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:27.080 But yeah, as soon as it was announced, um, you know, 0:08:27.160 --> 0:08:30.760 the tech enthusiasts latched onto it and and it started spreading. 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:34.560 But the thing is, um, Google was smart about launching 0:08:34.559 --> 0:08:37.959 it the way they did because they were trying to 0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:41.760 avoid overloading their servers um and so what they were 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:43.880 doing was they were releasing it to a few people 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:45.720 at a time. And when I say a few, a 0:08:45.760 --> 0:08:47.640 few to most of us would be you know, ten people, 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:49.880 but you know, a few to Google was you know 0:08:49.920 --> 0:08:52.720 a few hundreds, a few thousand at a time. And 0:08:52.840 --> 0:08:55.960 uh so people were going crazy the first few days 0:08:56.160 --> 0:08:58.600 after the launch looking for an invite to this new service. 0:08:58.640 --> 0:09:01.920 Now it also makes it seem really exclusive. Yeah, and 0:09:01.920 --> 0:09:04.760 of course the more, yeah, the more exclusive something is, 0:09:04.800 --> 0:09:07.080 the more people want to be in that because people 0:09:07.120 --> 0:09:09.800 want to be part of an exclusive group. And uh, 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:11.800 I mean it's just natural, right. You see, you see 0:09:11.840 --> 0:09:13.440 the cool click of kids, and you want to be 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:16.160 in that click. And once you're in that click, you're like, 0:09:16.200 --> 0:09:19.640 this is awesome. And yeah, I don't object to us 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:21.520 letting in maybe one or two other people who are 0:09:21.600 --> 0:09:23.839 kind of cool, but let's not go crazy and let 0:09:23.840 --> 0:09:25.720 everyone in, because then we don't have a click anymore. 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:28.640 So uh, and we can get into sort of the 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:32.080 click ish behavior that I've noticed on Google Plus. Not again, 0:09:32.120 --> 0:09:34.080 this is really really early on in Google Plus. I 0:09:34.080 --> 0:09:36.080 don't expect that this will last long. There's gonna be 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:39.600 a big change as more people join. And also there 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:41.679 were reports that within a couple of weeks of Google 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:45.199 Plus launching, they were already possibly as many as ten 0:09:45.240 --> 0:09:47.480 million people on it. And at the time we're recording 0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:50.600 this podcast, which is again just a couple of weeks 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:53.560 after Google Plus launched, they expect it to be up 0:09:53.559 --> 0:09:56.280 to twenty million by uh, in a in a couple 0:09:56.320 --> 0:09:58.880 of days from the recording of this podcast. So if 0:09:58.880 --> 0:10:01.720 you're looking for let's go ahead and get this answer 0:10:01.720 --> 0:10:04.160 out of the way. If you're looking for Google Plus 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:07.000 to knock off Facebook, right away, it's not going to 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:10.720 happen because they're talking twenty million people out of seven 0:10:11.200 --> 0:10:15.880 fifty million for Facebook. So the law, the the long 0:10:16.000 --> 0:10:19.720 term answer to that is maybe. But right now, you know, 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:22.720 there's no threat whatsoever. And I don't think Google would 0:10:22.760 --> 0:10:26.200 claim that Google Plus is meant to replace Facebook. In fact, 0:10:26.240 --> 0:10:28.840 that kind of leads us into what is Google Plus 0:10:29.000 --> 0:10:31.840 because we talked a lot about the the popularity, but 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:35.400 we haven't really even discussed anything about the actual service. 0:10:35.880 --> 0:10:39.480 There are some similarities to other social networks. In fact, 0:10:39.480 --> 0:10:42.640 there's there are similarities to other Google products. Yeah, and 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:44.600 and you will notice if you have used things like 0:10:44.600 --> 0:10:47.839 Google Buzz or Google Wave, you'll see little similarities here 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:50.400 and there in Google Plus. And you'll notice like, okay, 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:54.160 they they've sort of incorporated this idea and the lessons 0:10:54.200 --> 0:10:57.840 they learned from that into Google Plus. So Google Plus 0:10:57.960 --> 0:11:02.840 is essentially a social network, though it's not just a 0:11:02.920 --> 0:11:06.720 social network. And the way it works from a user 0:11:06.760 --> 0:11:10.280 perspective is that you will look for people who are 0:11:10.360 --> 0:11:13.080 on Google Plus or have yet to join Google Plus, 0:11:13.520 --> 0:11:16.800 people you know or people you know of, and you 0:11:16.840 --> 0:11:21.319 put those people into circles. Now, these circles are categories 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:27.040 so that you can uh put people into whichever ones 0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:29.920 fit best in your life, so that you can direct 0:11:30.000 --> 0:11:33.160 messages to those people and read messages from those people 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:36.960 in a way that's more granular than your average Facebook 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:40.800 user is used to. Yeah. Now, I mean, uh, Facebook 0:11:41.160 --> 0:11:43.120 fans would probably see, but yeah, I can do that 0:11:43.160 --> 0:11:49.240 with Facebook. Well. Um, basically the big difference here, I 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:51.640 think is that this is like the first thing you 0:11:51.679 --> 0:11:55.199 do when you add a new person to your Google 0:11:55.240 --> 0:11:58.840 Plus account if you want to uh start following Jonathan 0:11:58.880 --> 0:12:02.280 for example, Um, you know, the very first thing to say, Okay, 0:12:02.320 --> 0:12:05.040 oh I found him. Now what circles do you want 0:12:05.080 --> 0:12:06.439 to add him to? And you can add people to 0:12:06.480 --> 0:12:09.000 more than one circle, yes, and you can create circles. 0:12:09.080 --> 0:12:12.640 You you start off with some basic circles. I believe 0:12:12.640 --> 0:12:18.200 it's friends, family, acquaintances, and followers are following. So I've 0:12:18.200 --> 0:12:20.880 got let's say, I've got There's there's Chris, And then 0:12:20.880 --> 0:12:22.760 I have to make a decision do I put Chris 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:25.240 in my friend's circle, do I put them in my 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:27.800 acquaintances circle, or do I put them in my following circle. 0:12:27.840 --> 0:12:29.520 Chris is not part of my family, so I'm not 0:12:29.520 --> 0:12:31.559 going to put them in there, and I'm all right 0:12:31.600 --> 0:12:34.880 with that. Uh yeah, And and it's nice to note too, 0:12:35.559 --> 0:12:38.440 especially if you're concerned with issues of privacy. The person 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:40.240 on the other end, the person that you're adding to 0:12:40.240 --> 0:12:43.040 your circles, has no idea what circles to which you 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:45.760 have added them, right, So if you put them in, like, 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:48.400 you could create a circle called jerk faces. I know, 0:12:49.080 --> 0:12:50.640 I know, I know for a fact that I'm in 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:53.640 that certain and you could put people in the jerk 0:12:53.679 --> 0:12:56.079 faces I know circle and they're not gonna know that 0:12:56.080 --> 0:12:58.480 that's the They know that you've added them, yes, but 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:01.120 they don't know what circle they are in. So I'm 0:13:01.120 --> 0:13:03.560 probably in a lot of jerk faces I know circles 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:06.800 and yeah, and now that our listeners have heard me 0:13:06.840 --> 0:13:08.760 say this, I imagine a lot of them are making 0:13:08.840 --> 0:13:11.720 jerk faces I know circles just to put me in them. Um, 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:16.560 So you've got these circles. Now you've decided where this 0:13:16.880 --> 0:13:19.480 your first let's say it's your first person you're following. 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:21.680 So I'm going to use Chris as my example. I've 0:13:21.679 --> 0:13:23.720 decided that I want to follow Chris. I want to 0:13:23.800 --> 0:13:25.520 I want to hear what Chris has to say, I 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:27.160 want to be able to see his updates. I want 0:13:27.160 --> 0:13:30.000 to be able to see his photos. Um, I put 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:35.520 him in my acquaintances circle. All right. So now, anytime 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:39.679 Chris posts and publishes his post to either the public, 0:13:39.960 --> 0:13:42.319 which means everyone can see it. Everyone on Google Plus 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:44.319 can see it, everyone in the in the world can 0:13:44.360 --> 0:13:47.320 see it. Um. I mean it's not restricted to anybody 0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:50.200 in particular right right now. Now, if Chris has not 0:13:50.240 --> 0:13:52.199 put me in a circle, and he publishes it in 0:13:52.280 --> 0:13:55.679 anything other than public, I'm not going to see that information. 0:13:56.440 --> 0:13:59.480 So Chris decides that he wants to publish a status update, 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:01.040 but he's just going to push it to his friends. 0:14:01.120 --> 0:14:04.240 I am not in his friend's circle. He types in 0:14:04.240 --> 0:14:06.920 his status update, he sets it so that it only 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:09.920 publishes to friends he publishes it. I don't know that 0:14:10.000 --> 0:14:13.319 Chris has done anything to me. His his posts still 0:14:13.360 --> 0:14:16.320 are blank. Now let's say that Chris does another one 0:14:16.360 --> 0:14:19.480 where he decides he wants to talk about an article 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:21.960 he edited, and he wants this he wants the general 0:14:22.040 --> 0:14:24.520 public to know about this article. He sets that status 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:29.120 update to public. Suddenly I can see that particular stats 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:31.680 update because he set it to public. So anyone following 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:35.440 Chris can see it. Then let's say that Chris notices 0:14:35.480 --> 0:14:37.840 that I'm on Google Plus and he thinks, oh, well, 0:14:37.960 --> 0:14:40.040 Jonathan's there, I should add him. I'll add him to 0:14:40.120 --> 0:14:44.760 my acquaintances circle. Then Chris publishes a set us update 0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:47.640 and decides he only wants his acquaintances and friends to 0:14:47.680 --> 0:14:49.880 see it, so he sets it so that this stats 0:14:49.960 --> 0:14:52.200 update goes up to friends and acquaintances, but not the 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:56.360 general public. I would be able to see that stats update. Now, 0:14:56.400 --> 0:14:58.520 if he had not added me to his acquaintance circle 0:14:59.080 --> 0:15:00.800 or his friends circle, I would not see it. I 0:15:00.800 --> 0:15:03.760 would be unaware that he had updated his status. You 0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:05.880 can get so granular that you can create a stats 0:15:06.000 --> 0:15:09.560 update and directed to specific people. So I could create 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:13.400 a stas update and just send it to Chris alone, 0:15:13.440 --> 0:15:15.240 and that's the only person who sees it. Or I 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:17.320 could send it to Chris and maybe three or four 0:15:17.320 --> 0:15:19.000 other people. Let's say that it's three or four people 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:21.480 who are in different circles. They don't really belong all 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:24.120 on the same circle, but I think they all need 0:15:24.160 --> 0:15:27.360 to see this message. I might just go in and 0:15:27.440 --> 0:15:30.280 manually put in each name, and those are the only 0:15:30.320 --> 0:15:33.600 people who will see that message. Now, there's some other 0:15:33.640 --> 0:15:36.560 things you have to remember, like, uh, there is the 0:15:36.600 --> 0:15:41.280 ability to share posts that other people have published. Now 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:43.960 if you you can either turn the sharing on or off, 0:15:44.280 --> 0:15:46.120 so you don't have to. If you turn it off, 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:48.400 that means other people cannot share the same message you 0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:52.080 just posted. If the share is on, your message that 0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:54.720 went out to just your friends or just your acquaintances 0:15:54.800 --> 0:15:58.760 might suddenly become public. So Chris sends out a message 0:15:58.800 --> 0:16:01.480 to just his acquaintances, he has sharing turned on, he 0:16:01.520 --> 0:16:04.240 has not turned that off. I read Chris's post, and 0:16:04.280 --> 0:16:07.760 I think, hey, that's awesome. Everyone who follows me wants 0:16:07.800 --> 0:16:11.040 to know that too. I hit share. Suddenly his message 0:16:11.080 --> 0:16:13.440 that just went to his acquaintances are now it's now 0:16:13.480 --> 0:16:17.840 out in the wild, So they're attributed to me exactly. Yes, yes, 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:19.840 so people can actually follow it back to Chris. Now, 0:16:19.880 --> 0:16:21.440 granted they're only going to be able to see the 0:16:21.440 --> 0:16:23.600 things that Chris has published at that point to the 0:16:23.640 --> 0:16:26.480 public if they go directly to that's the weird thing. 0:16:26.760 --> 0:16:29.560 They might see a shared post like I share your post, 0:16:29.960 --> 0:16:32.120 they see it on my feed, then they follow it 0:16:32.160 --> 0:16:34.000 back to your feed and selling you that post isn't 0:16:34.000 --> 0:16:36.480 there because it wasn't set to public when it was 0:16:36.520 --> 0:16:40.280 originally published, and it gets a little complicated. These are 0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:43.720 things that the Google Plus team. They're looking into this 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:46.920 stuff to see what makes sense and what doesn't make sense, 0:16:47.160 --> 0:16:50.560 you know, sharing versus private. And because you have the 0:16:50.600 --> 0:16:53.760 ability to turn sharing off, if you are someone who 0:16:53.760 --> 0:16:56.560 doesn't want information to go beyond that group of friends, 0:16:56.600 --> 0:16:58.640 you can always turn it off. Now, granted, that doesn't 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:02.520 stop your friends from say A, saying that Jonathan said, 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:06.119 blah blah blah, And there's always you know, copy and paste, right, 0:17:06.200 --> 0:17:07.879 So yeah, there are ways around it. But that's the 0:17:07.920 --> 0:17:11.000 same for any social network. I sort of count on 0:17:11.040 --> 0:17:13.240 my friends to be lazy enough where they won't I 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:16.439 can't share this, yeah, exactly. And and really, I mean 0:17:16.440 --> 0:17:19.080 it's just like real life. Just like real life. If 0:17:19.080 --> 0:17:21.200 I come up and I tell Chris is secret, there's 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:23.720 nothing stopping Chris from going around and telling other people 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:27.520 that secret. I'm sorry, I told you, I'm sorry. Gee. Yeah, 0:17:27.600 --> 0:17:29.760 well let's see if you ever get any key line 0:17:29.760 --> 0:17:33.960 pie from me again. So so that's the basics behind 0:17:34.000 --> 0:17:36.720 circles and sharing. And also, if let's say that when 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:41.000 you're actually consuming information, You're not just that that's sending 0:17:41.000 --> 0:17:46.440 information out right, publishing information. You can also look view 0:17:46.560 --> 0:17:49.240 your stream. That's what Google Plus calls your what what 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:53.000 Facebook would call the wall right or Twitter would call 0:17:53.040 --> 0:17:55.600 it the feed, So it's the same sort of concept. 0:17:55.640 --> 0:17:57.840 It's it's the stream of information coming from all the 0:17:57.840 --> 0:18:01.000 people that you put into your circles. You can view 0:18:01.040 --> 0:18:04.480 that by circle. So if you just have it set 0:18:04.520 --> 0:18:08.360 to the stream, you're looking at everything that people you 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:13.040 follow are publishing. So all your friends, acquaintances, celebrities who 0:18:13.080 --> 0:18:15.320 might be following people you know of but you don't 0:18:15.320 --> 0:18:18.080 actually know in real life. All the information gets dumped 0:18:18.119 --> 0:18:21.240 into the stream. If you want to try and filter 0:18:21.359 --> 0:18:23.959 that out, you can view your stream by circle. So 0:18:24.040 --> 0:18:26.800 I might click friends and now I'm only going to 0:18:26.880 --> 0:18:30.800 see the updates that my friends have published to their stream, 0:18:30.880 --> 0:18:34.440 and I've cut everything else out. I can even view 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:39.960 it by incoming incoming. It gets really crazy for people 0:18:40.040 --> 0:18:43.720 like me, and more so for people who are even 0:18:43.800 --> 0:18:48.800 more even more who are actually famous. Because I have, 0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:53.320 as the recording of this podcast, I have people following me. 0:18:54.040 --> 0:18:57.880 If I choose incoming, I see their updates, so I'm 0:18:57.920 --> 0:19:01.119 not following them. But by hitting income, I'm seeing everyone 0:19:01.160 --> 0:19:03.280 who's following me, I'm seeing their updates. So suddenly it 0:19:03.359 --> 0:19:08.479 just becomes a wall of information. Um. But assuming that 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:10.879 everything they've published as public, if they published stuff to 0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:13.439 their friends or their acquaintances or whatever, I'm not going 0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:15.920 to see that. I'm only going to see stuff that 0:19:16.040 --> 0:19:17.879 in the circles that I've been included in and in 0:19:17.920 --> 0:19:20.679 the public posts. But it means that I get a 0:19:20.720 --> 0:19:22.760 lot more information from a lot more people, not just 0:19:22.800 --> 0:19:26.160 the people I follow, right. Um, So in a way 0:19:26.640 --> 0:19:29.119 that a lot right. So, in a way, Google Plus 0:19:29.160 --> 0:19:32.040 is like Facebook and that you can follow specific people, 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:34.800 they can follow you back and you. In a way, 0:19:34.840 --> 0:19:37.359 it's like Twitter because in Twitter you can follow people 0:19:37.720 --> 0:19:39.159 and just read what they have to say as long 0:19:39.160 --> 0:19:41.320 as they don't have their profile set to private. You 0:19:41.359 --> 0:19:45.359 can read Twitter posts from people as they update. So 0:19:45.520 --> 0:19:47.400 in Google Plus the same sort of thing. You don't 0:19:47.400 --> 0:19:49.959 have to give permission to someone in order for them 0:19:50.000 --> 0:19:53.879 to follow you. But people say, well what about privacy. 0:19:53.920 --> 0:19:56.720 That's where the the circles come in. That's where you 0:19:56.760 --> 0:19:59.600 can choose which circles see what you have to say. 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:01.960 If you don't want random people seeing what you have 0:20:02.000 --> 0:20:06.280 to say, you publish it to a specific circle, right, Um, 0:20:06.320 --> 0:20:12.560 And I mean people compare this product to Twitter and 0:20:12.840 --> 0:20:16.000 Facebook all the time. Um. I've seen a constant stream 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:20.280 of that. However, I think it's most like at least 0:20:20.320 --> 0:20:24.280 the ones I've tried. Most like another service that caught 0:20:24.359 --> 0:20:26.679 on for a little while and Facebook acquired it, and 0:20:26.680 --> 0:20:30.640 it's sort of languished under Facebook's control, and that's called 0:20:30.720 --> 0:20:35.200 friend Feed. If you've ever been to friend feed dot com. Um, 0:20:35.240 --> 0:20:40.520 it's very very similar and um, it's it's similar to 0:20:40.800 --> 0:20:42.680 I mean, the the feed is somewhat similar to the 0:20:42.720 --> 0:20:47.159 wall on on Facebook, but you can um like and 0:20:47.240 --> 0:20:51.239 unlike and make long comments to it, very much in 0:20:51.280 --> 0:20:54.400 the style of friend feed, more so than than Facebook 0:20:54.480 --> 0:20:57.480 or Twitter. But it's it's closer probably to Facebook or 0:20:57.480 --> 0:20:59.720 friend Feed than it is to Twitter. Now, I mean 0:20:59.760 --> 0:21:03.240