Google Plus isn't my social network, it's where I live. (Part one)

Before G+, I was already always in Gmail on the browser. It was only natural to add other tabs when Google Plus came along, especially since it touches many other services from Google, acting, as I said previously, as a glue to bring them together.

 

Today, Chee Chew announced that Hangout on Air are open for everyone!

This is huge. You now have a full, worldwide television station attached to your Google Plus account. Go live anytime for demonstrations, discussions, parties, fun, business, whatever works within the 10 person live video streaming platform of YouTube. (Note, there are some countries that are not currently allowing their citizens to be On Air: Germany is one.

Google Drive for collaboration

I've just started using this for work with a new associate and we've both found it to be incredibly useful. Google's free tools won't necessarily replace similar ones out there, but they are tied in with the GoogleVerse, and that seems to be a great advantage to me.

Gmail needs no introduction

I've been using it for years, bith as a paid and a free app. I run my own servers and it is trivial for me to run my own mail, yet I opted to pay for Google Apps for our small business and do all my personal mail on Gmail.

Daily News in a Vertical Sector (VoIP)

Every morning I do some news reviewing for the weekly VoIP & Tell on this page. Google News is one of the first things I see in the morning, sometimes before my mail.

There are many other great Google services like Maps, Books, etc. I think most of them will be tied together with a common toolbar some day. Google may not be the answer to every single situation. Perhaps you shopuldn't put all your eggs in one basket, but compared a social network, I'm happier on Google Plus and have no immediate plans to change that.

If you understand this statement, you won't need to read further: If anything you send electronically is not encrypted, it isn't private.

I was thinking about messaging someone on Facebook today. He wrote me about a mutual friend. I wanted to answer with a wry comment about my hoping to find my high school French teacher on Facebook, but thought better of it. In the case of Facebook, things change there from week to week, and some day I'd not be surprised to find all kinds of things revealed either to the world at large, or to all your friends. Messages on Facebook are like leaving a message on someone's answering machine. You know in those suspense movies where someone leaves a message and the killer hears it and knows the husband won't be home for two hours? Even if Facebook never breaches your privacy, what if your friend's laptop is stolen or hacked?

Photo Alan Cleaver

Email isn't private, either.

You must realize that many people could be reading your email for the most legitimate reasons. A few years ago, I was asked to investigate an anomaly in a customer's mail delivery services. I always inform customers that in such an investigation, we will likely see messages written to them. This is precisely how I came to see a compromising message from a known and respected online personality offering specific promotional services for hire to this customer. Such services would constitute influence peddling and a conflict of interest. It's very lucky for the peron involved that I was the one who saw this mail, rather than it being intercepted by, say, a reporter.

Private messaging on Twitter could suddenly be hacked, and if nothing else, accounts have been taken over en masse in the past. I also just got an email from a guy whose Gmail account was hacked. We've all seen how destructive the odd SMS could be. I'm not saying you need to encrypt every message you send. Just be aware that, like the husband of the innocent murder victim in that thriller, someone may "overhear" your message, even accidentally and that what you say in a message might be used, quoted out of context, or exploited in ways we haven't thought of yet.

Disappointed. Saddened.
I just received an email from the stepfather of a dear friend. I've been
in contact with this guy casually, never met him, but we've exchanged a
few mails from time to time, including a few stupid jokes as newbies are
wont to send out. (Why? Because it's there?) Today I got a nasty Obama
family smear attempt forwarded to a long visible CC list of people. This
is so wrong on so many levels I have to talk about it.
 
First, what to do?

Tell him? Tell my friend? No, I'll tell you and it
may save someone else from having this saddening experience. I can't see
confronting him as good nor do I want to put my friend in the middle.
 
On CC'ed forwarded emails with all addresses visible

One word: DON'T. Please do not send my email
to a bunch of people I don't know, especially political or religious
stuff that may be the opposite of my own opinions. THINK about why this
is a bad idea. Would you send me a negative review of a wine you know I
love just to piss me off? No one would do that. Why would someone think
it's reasonable to do it for religious or political reasons? In fact,
why would you send a negative anything to anyone?
 
Be positive! Make the world better, not bitter.
 
On the US president. RESPECT the fact that we had an election with
results that are certainly more clear than the last two. RESPECT the
fact that whatever you may think about the current administration, I may
have voted for them as is my right. Rights are not for the eye of the
beholder you know, we all have them, at the time of this writing.
 
Wine people would never think of applying these tactics to their
friends, or for that matter even their enemies. If you want to drink
White Zin, I wouldn't waste my time sending you silly things about it.
It's your decision.
 
Disgruntled voters, please get over yourselves.

There are elections  every four years. Get ready for the next one, do what you can to win,
that's what the system is there for. Please don't insult my intelligence
by sending blatant mud-slinging messages to me about the current
administration. I would never, ever, under any circumstances send you
such messages or poke you in any way about this. I am always ready to
talk, in person, about any of these things. Emails are like bombs you
throw over a wall, they don't encourage discussions. Uncool, uncouth, rude.

Proselytism  (wikipedia definition)

One word, STOP. When people come up to me on the street
about their religious beliefs, my first response is a smile, a gentle
shaking of the head (no) and a "no thanks". LEAVE IT THAT. Why are you
poking at this, saying "but it will only take a minute, I just have a
question"? This is dishonest, like an MLM party where you're invited to
share some thought about "good eating" and get there to find it's a sell
me to sell you party.
 
I had a violent reaction to someone a few years ago regarding social
networking , which I saw at the time as a bunch of people giving
conferences about social media and selling each other lessons on how to
sell people social media. I was wrong then, but look what's happened.
 
"Social media" has become inundated with MLM like schemes, people
Tweeting about getting 22,000 followers in just two days for $199.
 
Wow I feel better and covered several life experiences at the same time.
I'll just forward subsequent emails from this person to
http://spamcop.net and be done with it.