Should I Use Google+

If you have heard of Google+ and have an idea of what it is, you are probably a bit ahead of the curve with respect to the internet and social media technology. If not, you are probably a normal person who doesn't get very excited about new social media technology — maybe you don't even call it social media, since now-a-days that means FaceBook to most people, and Twitter to a few others.


Google+ is another social network, but the twist is that it is integrated directly into Google. This means that the searches you do and the things you post to Google+ are used to tailor your search results. Better yet, searches your friends do and the things your friends post to Google+ are used too. In addition, Google uses the +1 feature to enhance its search results — a +1 from a friend would increase the relevance of a website in your search results. All told, Google is out to learn more about you in order to do search better.

As you can see, Google is trying to do a lot more than mimic Facebook. Google already sells ads and has tons of traffic — competing with FaceBook on that level makes no sense. However, FaceBook, and Twitter, have been capturing something that Google has not: signals.

Oh, Google already gets lots of signals from your online behavior — they know what you search for and click on. What they don't know is what the people who influence you search for and click on. If they could know, by relationship, the people who help shape your opinions and choices, your online experience would be far more like shopping at the local boutique your friend owns, than shopping at Wal-mart. The signals your friends generate are an order of magnitude more useful in tailoring your online experience that just your own.

This is where FaceBook has been kicking Google's butt. They know your friends, and your friends friends — what they do, what they "like" and so on. The problem FaceBook has is that they don't have all of the internet — whereas Google pretty much has all of it. If Google can get some of the same signals and relationship information that FaceBook has and use it to tailor your search results and ads, well, you would like Google a lot better. Your entire online experience would get better.

If all this creeps you out, please close your computer now, reach around and unplug your network connection (or turn off your wireless router) and back away. Welcome to the internet. The promise of an interconnected web of data, where information flows freely and is easy to find and use, includes information about you, your friends, and family. It always has, its just that now most of the important players are finally figuring out that you are the product as well as the customer (ok, to be fair, they knew that all along, its just that it is now becoming obvious to more common-folk). But, in then end this is a good thing.

Our online signals plus our friends signals can be used to produce search results (and ads) that suit our taste. They make more sense. In the absence of these signals, every search produces the same results — and what you may mean by a certain search phrase likely will not be what someone else means. So it makes sense for our online services to incorporate this knowledge of our lives.

That leads to the privacy argument: collection of all of this data is somehow an invasion of our privacy. I say to that "poppy-cock." The internet is a public place. Even if you are no more than a consumer of information, you are requesting that information from companies, services, and finally servers owned by someone else. The way the internet works those servers MUST know at least your internet address to deliver the information. As a result you have no expectation of privacy with regard to your online behavior. Oh sure, you could take steps to protect your identity — but to do so you have to have excellent hacking skills (and potentially misuse someone else's systems) or use one of those anonymizing services (do you want to trust THEM with your info?). Face it, you step into the public sphere when you go online.

If you have read this far, you probably know where I'm going. In my opinion, the more info you give Google and other services, the better they are for you. You may have concerns about the kind of data they collect, and who gets to see it, but the reality is that you are far more likely to be the target of a random identity theft attack by using your credit card in a restaurant than you are from a data breach at Google or the like. (For that matter, your bank is probably not as secure, and certainly more of a target.)

The way I see it, the more people embrace the fact that they are leading public lives, and go with it, the better the internet will be for everyone. So, jump into Google+ with both feet.