Yep

Irony, much? I still haven't signed up for google+ :-)

Me neither. Too busy elsewhere.

I just got into Google+ thing. Doesn't look that attractive. Well maybe because i am used to facebook. But i really doubt if google+ would really race ahead of facebook!

I'm definitely going look at my privacy settings more closely now, to see if I should be opting out too.

Google+ plus is ok'ish. Does need a lot of polish.

Almost every day I see a bold headline on the opening page of Google News about their +1 service. That's not a surprise or particularly troubling ~ it's an obvious way for them to promote it ~ but still, I find it hard to believe with everything going on in the world, this ends up as one of the "Top Stories" on a regular basis. It goes to prove, lest there be any doubt, that they can insert whatever they want at the top level; and if they insert their own promotions here, it's only a minor stretch to realize they can do it for search as well ~ thus all the YouTube's & etc getting top ranking. So, I don't buy the public pronouncements that everything is algo generated without any influence of Google engineers. Sorry, that simply contradicts what I consistently see for myself. It may be algo generated, but the algo is set to promote themselves ... and as I said, that's no surprise.

....................

Just tells us what kind of people they are.

Under the category of "No s**t Dick Tracy"

Anyone who's upset with Billionaires making their social network profiles private has a serious problem with the grasping of that thar reality thing.

If those individuals left their profiles public, they would have to hire a hundred or so admin assistants just to parse our the bombardment of incoming crap from fanboys, haters, etc. When you reach a certain level of wealth and or fame, managing your identity and exposure to the public becomes a very real problem.

Side note: Been playing around with Google plus for about a week or so (took me a while to get around to accepting the invite, that whole having a life thing getting in the way of my "social networking"). If you're doing web marketing, it's your JOB to get on Google+ and get to know it and how it works.

Social networking completely aside, if you set up the account and your circles well, out of the box, it's a vastly more effective marketing tool than Facebook.

Look at it from a marketing perspective, not from a "social network" perspective, and there is some real value in the service.

Let the sheeple use it as a social network. Trust me, they will.

The +1 button isn't getting any use in serps for me, nobody clicks on it from there before seeing my pages, but it sure looks pretty.

Anyway, I'm not going to create a profile for myself, ever, but is publishing a page for my site allowed ?

I want traffic from Google, not a platform to play on where the cost is my privacy, because who knows what I'll want the world to know 20 years from now and the internet doesn't have an 'un-publish' button. (I put my foot in it enough on these forums! :)

never was a member of any social network, when i have something to say its messenger, phone, sms

Reading the article and the rapid pull-out of the Google aristocracy does seem a little suspicious. It’s as plain as day they know something they’re not opening up about. Could it be something they don’t want the government to see Mr. Schmidt. It all seems so hypocritical.

The +1 button isn't getting any use in serps for me, nobody clicks on it from there before seeing my pages, but it sure looks pretty.

I agree Sgt_Kickaxe, not many people I know would click through to a listing on Google's SERP and then come back to SERP just to click on that +1 button...Overkill...

As for Google+, I've created a profile purely to see what its capabilities are...I have no intention of maintaining it and telling Google more than they already know about me...

>> Anyone who's upset with Billionaires making their social network profiles private has a serious problem with the grasping of that thar reality thing.

All of these guys can afford to have two profiles. One maintained by their PR handlers and kept public, to keep the masses happy that they're able to get updates from the rich and powerful.

Its a PR move badly handled.

Perhaps they're about to turn on the data pipeline from +1 to the NSA. Top Brass would know and would likely get out of the way.

Hmmm, Google has the info even if private and so would the NSA so it's not that. Perhaps the battle rages on with China and they're not 100% secure, I dunno... just thinking while typing.

There IS a reason, that's good enough for me.

The +1 button isn't getting any use in serps for me, nobody clicks on it from there before seeing my pages, but it sure looks pretty.

+1 is pretty or the 'Like', I would fear 'Like' button is better and more obvious.
So why they can't have Google 'Like' ..!

since when are they deciding who sees what where? (oh yeah, they are google)

is google rising as the murdoch empire falls?

does history teach us anything?

at the very least, we need heavy duty google watchers - and lots of em.

thanks again to WebmasterWorld for the heads up.

No surprise that Zuckerburg and the G founders are opting out.

- The G gods have enough info on ALL of us as it is. I try to stay logged out of all Gmail whenever I search.

Though "+1" and the "Like" button is something that we have to look into if we are in the e-commerce world and heavily reliant on the big G.

I'm totally in love with Google+. I've been waiting for something huge to happen that I could get in while it was still new. Lots of opportunity is opening up. My site has been struggling for years. I posted an article about G+ yesterday and my traffic doubled! Been waiting a long time to see that. People have a long history of jumping to new social networks when they are upset with the old ones. I don't think Facebook will die but I believe that G+ will take a lot of their share. William Shatner added me to his circles today so I may be a little biased :)

@emmett, yep, the timing is good. I think Facebook has pretty much peaked, and Google could be where the users move to. On the plus side, i think Google servers have better uptime than Facebook.

What we really need though is a whole new player, one we can trust. Is it possible to trust any big players though.

@Seb7, it's hard to know if anyone at all can be trusted. Marketing drives the internet for the most part and information on how we use the web is priceless to marketing.

I've been waiting around on something new to pop up which I could get ahead of the curve on and I think G+ is just the thing I need to become proactive again and stop whining about how poorly I'm doing in my old niche. Traffic is tripling compared to before for me. I still need a lot more to become reasonably profitable but at least I'm not sitting around doing nothing now.

Overall, Google Plus, is a nice phenomenon for the Web.
Privacy concerns are more in Facebook, as monitoring and scrutiny is grossly by human beings.

Don't think it means anything other than that they value their privacy and think everyone else in the world should give up theirs. It seems pretty consistent with past behavior.

Another look at possibly why...
[theregister.co.uk...]