Why I am Liking Google+

By far the biggest attraction for me to Google+ thus far is the implementation of circles and what they mean for privacy.

I've seen friends who fell victim to workplace reprimands over things they post on Facebook. Where one "my boss sucks" post can make or break the rest of your tenure at that employer. One in particular led to a friend enduring years of harassment and estrangement from coworkers who had no business being in her business anyway.

Myself, I've dealt with an ex-wife blocked on Facebook who hacked our teenager's account in order to read what all I had to say about her or anything else, leading to having to create a filter there for sharing NOTHING with my kid other than the ephemeral friend connection with no social interactivity.

Circles have allowed for me to categorize and re-categorize everyone I know, or don't know, into groups I easily define as "ok to share this with" or "don't post this kinky link to" or even "hey everyone, I'm now dating so-and-so." Can't 'friend' mom on Facebook because she might disapprove of things you post? No problem here: just don't put her in your "100% Uncensored" circle--or better, make a circle of one and call it "mom" she'll never know.

This ability to pick and choose my privacy on a post-by-post basis is far more intuitive and easy-to-use than has been Facebook's (every time that site changes something major, it tends to reset my settings and I don't always catch it--now I don't feel as if I have to worry about that level of vigilance).

This has been heavy on my mind a lot since my recent quandary over whether to make my blog accessible to the public again. Doing so would mean exposing some raw personal stuff to people who I don't want exposed to it (or deleting it), but keeping it hidden keeps the most mundane movie review post, etc. blocked from all but my approved readers as well. Zero middle ground there...

So, Google+ you and I might just end up being pretty good friends.