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Google, What have you done?

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Google uses the moniker, “Don’t Be Evil,” but is that the truth behind the company? A look at Google Plus might change your mind.

Google+ is an interesting creature. One that is gaining popularity rather quickly. It is also one that might not last due to Google’s own policies.

The buzz around Google wanting people to only use real names in Google+ is gaining more and more steam. People are not happy with this idea. Everyone thought that Google+ would be better than Facebook. It definitely has the potential to compete with Facebook. The naming issue is turning into a stumbling block.

I will not go into depth on the whole idea of hiding from stalkers using a pseudonym in a social media setting. Instead I look at it from a natural way to know people. I have a great deal of online friends. I know them by their names from games, from forums, form other places that you don’t use your normal name. So when I see that Joe Shmo instead of DJ Cool J has added me to their circles, I have to sit back and wonder who the heck is following me? For that matter, Google+ is only as usable as the people you have in your circles, and if I cannot find them easily, which means nicknames, pseudonyms, etc, then I am not going to use the site.

Google though, sees the whole Social Media world as data. Just like search, just like AdWords, it is all data that can be used with algorithms to extract bits of information. That information can then be used to send targeted advertising to you. This increases the chance that Google and the company who is advertising can make some money off you. Its all about making a buck.

So should it surprise anyone that Google wants to mine what you say in Google+. What you Link to? Who you are? The amount of data that Google can dig up on each one of us through public means can really give a good profile of us. That can be used for Advertising, or worse, should Google decide to use it for “Homeland Security” purposes.

The book In The Plex by Steven Levey takes a good look at Google. Brin and Page (Google’s Founders) are all about the data and search. Data especially, because they want to have everything in the world indexed in one spot. Just imagine if that data fell into the wrong hands.

Facbook Video Chat

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Last week Facebook announced a new video chat powered by Skype. The question is, what does this mean for privacy?

Facebooks announcement last week of now having the ability to have video chats with friends was a big announcement. It meant that Facebook was doing something other chat systems have had for years. The partnership with Microsoft/Skype (that deal is still pending approval), is logical. The problems that Facebook can face though, have me wary of it.

First off, Facebook doesn’t enforce its own TOS, which has an age limit. We already have heard about cyber bullying cases. The video chat can take this to a new level. What about people pretending to be your children’s age, but really being pedophiles? This now takes on a different issue. There are 2 other things though that bother me about this.

First, encryption of calls. I haven’t had a full chance to play with the system, but nowhere have I seen any mention that the calls will be encrypted. Skype itself uses encryption on the client end, but Skype also is a P2P system, so the encryption happens at a person’s machine. Facebook looks to be a server solution, so are these call being encrypted, or can someone easily look in on them? I know some people are looking into this aspect.

The other troublesome part to me is a patent that Microsoft has from 2009 to silently record calls over a network. With the pending acquisition of Skype, it can be very easy for Microsoft to toss this technology in Skype, and the Facebook chat. think of it, your calls, your video, your “private” conversations, recorded without your consent, without your knowledge, and possibly without a warrant. This is not to say that they will, but the opportunity is there. Not only that, but think of Facebook’s stance on privacy. They have already said that they don’t care about it. People will get used to not having privacy. Imagine the information they can get from your phone calls.

I am not saying that these scenarios will happen, but they are possibilities. Some more likely than others, but they all must be taken into consideration.

Google+ A First Look

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Social Networking is a big thing in the world right now. Can Google+ be the next big thing? Here are my first impressions of it.

Google+, the new attempt by Google to go up against Facebook. I was able to get in it last night, and immediately started poking around, seeing what was what, and how things worked on a basic level.

Basic is the best way to describe the look of Google+. so basic and spartan, which is nice in some respects, but maddening in others. It is easy to see your stream, your circles, etc, in fact the basic layout of where things are located is very similar to Facebook. The learning curve on what is what, is not too bad, although a few hours in I was still trying to find some settings.

The biggest issue I ran into with the main stream page, was the stream itself. It seemed like there were posts put in random order. It made things rather confusing, and I have yet to find a setting to force it to be in an actual timeline that makes sense. This is something I feel needs to be addressed, and pretty quickly, as Facebook’s news feed is well beyond Google’s stream in look, feel and custom-ability.

After looking and tearing my hair out with the stream, I went  into Circles and started setting things up. Circles, to me, is the nicest feature. I proceeded to set up a few special circles for myself and started adding people I knew into different circles. Being able to segregate people into different areas so they only can see what I want them to, allowing for certain things to get out, while other things don’t, is a great idea, and well done by Google.

Posting to one’s stream, you get some nice options, including sending the post to people you know who are not in Google+ yet which would work as an invite to them. Other options such as which circles, or even down to individual people are allowed to see the post, gives a granularity of privacy that Facebook does not have, nor cares about.

Sparks is probably the second most interesting aspect of Google+. The idea of getting what amounts to a RSS feeds based on a keyword for an interest, is amazing. Again, you can get real specific with you information and search. this is definitely right up Google’s main alley, with its search engine.

Some areas where I find it to really feel beta, or need to be improved, besides the stream order, include the Settings. It is not as easy to find some of them, especially the privacy settings, as I would like. Its definitely no more difficult than on Facebook, but I think Google can do better. Also, there is no event calendar system for setting up events. Considering that could be integrated with Google Calendar, I am surprised that they didn’t do that out of the box.

Google did give a tab on Your profile page to keep up with Buzz to some extent, but I haven’t played with it enough to really see how well Buzz got brought into Plus.

Keeping in mind that this is still beta software, and there are bugs, slowness issues, and other things that can and will change or be adjusted, what they do have right now is a good start. Its a solid base upon which to build on. the question really is, will Google advance with this or will it drop the ball like it has in the past.