Larry Page's second big mistake as CEO of Google
Sagittarius
01-10-2014, 04:33 PM
This unsolicited e-mail arrived in my inbox but it is sufficiently interesting for me to pass it on. The writer, Robert Hof, wrote it for Forbes
Opening Your Gmail Box to Google+ Followers
Why Does Google Need A Facebook Engineer to Fix Larry Page's Mistake? Robert Hof Contributor
In fact, this is the second time in the last two years that Page has pushed the envelope pretty far beyond what many reasonable people think is wise. In January 2012, Google said it would incorporate photos and posts from Google+ into search results for people signed into Google services, causing another uproar.
Google clearly realized there would be privacy implications, so it has put in place a number of controls. It isn’t showing the actual email address to people with whom you haven’t already emailed, and people with thousands of followers won’t have their inbox opened to people not in their Google+ Circles. Messages from people you don’t know will show up in a separate Social tab in Gmail, while those from people you do know will go into your Primary tab. You also can opt to limit your exposure to varying degrees, including letting no one contact you via Google+. What’s more, the same people can’t keep sending you an email; they can do it this way only once.
Nonetheless, the fact that you have to opt out or face the prospect of lots of relative strangers invading your email box is angering a lot of people. Some sample tweets:
* I’m leaving Gmail this weekend,†says @violetblue.
* “Already drowning in email and Google makes it easier for PR people to flood my email? No thanks,†says Techdirt CEO Mike Masnick.
* “it’s just really f***ed up to me how much sway the G+ team must have in order to leverage trusted gmail to do this,†snaps Mike Isaac, senior editor at Recode.net.
* “Oh god no.. Another reason to hate Google+.. they turned it into a stalking tool,†adds Gigaom reporter Jeff John Roberts.
* “Let’s be clear: if you launch a new feature where everyone gets access to your inbox, you need to make it OPT IN, not OPT OUT,†chides Joshua Topolsky.
* Even at least one Googler, Kevin Rose, a general partner at Google Ventures, doesn’t sound happy: “(my opinion) If Google+ users need to communicate build an internal messaging tool, connecting gmail doesn’t make any sense…â€Â
Honestly, it doesn’t make all that much difference to me, since I use my Gmail for business and am not especially secretive about my email address. I already get a lot of pitches, up to dozens a day (or more during CES this week), so I may not notice much difference. But I can certainly understand why most people who use Gmail could find this very intrusive. If you want to know how it works and how to deal with the change, check out Danny Sullivan’s great FAQ.
It will be interesting to see if Google backs off and makes this opt-in. But I suspect the backlash will have to be pretty severe among a large number of people, not just vocal tweeters, for that to happen.
Opening Your Gmail Box to Google+ Followers
Why Does Google Need A Facebook Engineer to Fix Larry Page's Mistake? Robert Hof Contributor
In fact, this is the second time in the last two years that Page has pushed the envelope pretty far beyond what many reasonable people think is wise. In January 2012, Google said it would incorporate photos and posts from Google+ into search results for people signed into Google services, causing another uproar.
Google clearly realized there would be privacy implications, so it has put in place a number of controls. It isn’t showing the actual email address to people with whom you haven’t already emailed, and people with thousands of followers won’t have their inbox opened to people not in their Google+ Circles. Messages from people you don’t know will show up in a separate Social tab in Gmail, while those from people you do know will go into your Primary tab. You also can opt to limit your exposure to varying degrees, including letting no one contact you via Google+. What’s more, the same people can’t keep sending you an email; they can do it this way only once.
Nonetheless, the fact that you have to opt out or face the prospect of lots of relative strangers invading your email box is angering a lot of people. Some sample tweets:
* I’m leaving Gmail this weekend,†says @violetblue.
* “Already drowning in email and Google makes it easier for PR people to flood my email? No thanks,†says Techdirt CEO Mike Masnick.
* “it’s just really f***ed up to me how much sway the G+ team must have in order to leverage trusted gmail to do this,†snaps Mike Isaac, senior editor at Recode.net.
* “Oh god no.. Another reason to hate Google+.. they turned it into a stalking tool,†adds Gigaom reporter Jeff John Roberts.
* “Let’s be clear: if you launch a new feature where everyone gets access to your inbox, you need to make it OPT IN, not OPT OUT,†chides Joshua Topolsky.
* Even at least one Googler, Kevin Rose, a general partner at Google Ventures, doesn’t sound happy: “(my opinion) If Google+ users need to communicate build an internal messaging tool, connecting gmail doesn’t make any sense…â€Â
Honestly, it doesn’t make all that much difference to me, since I use my Gmail for business and am not especially secretive about my email address. I already get a lot of pitches, up to dozens a day (or more during CES this week), so I may not notice much difference. But I can certainly understand why most people who use Gmail could find this very intrusive. If you want to know how it works and how to deal with the change, check out Danny Sullivan’s great FAQ.
It will be interesting to see if Google backs off and makes this opt-in. But I suspect the backlash will have to be pretty severe among a large number of people, not just vocal tweeters, for that to happen.
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