<story><title>Why I&apos;m Rooting For Google+</title><url>http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2011/07/why-im-rooting-for-google.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>timr</author><text>I don&apos;t get it.  Isn&apos;t anyone else as creeped-out by the idea of a Google social network as I am?&lt;p&gt;I&apos;m definitely not thrilled at the idea of Facebook being the One True Social Network, but the idea of a Google social network makes me sad, and more than a little nervous.  The fact that Google is trying to exploit their search dominance to funnel people into a Facebook competitor screams &quot;anti-trust violation&quot; to me, and the information-control consequences make me a little woozy -- I&apos;d rather that Facebook dominate the space completely than give Google any more of my personal information.  Google+ may not be evil, but it isn&apos;t exactly lily-pure, either.&lt;p&gt;I&apos;m hoping that this is another classic case of Nerd Blindness (much like Rob Malda&apos;s famous proclamation that the original iPod was &apos;lame&apos;):  Google has an exceptionally good technical reputation, so techies are foaming at the mouth to get access to their newest plaything, while &lt;i&gt;everyone else&lt;/i&gt; just sees this as an attempt by a gigantic company to destroy a good service that it sees as a threat.&lt;p&gt;Cheering for Google to win in the social network space seems to be to be a bit like hoping that IBM will take down Microsoft.  When giants fight, I can&apos;t summon up any other feeling than fear that the rest of us are going to get squashed.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>naner</author><text>Google, while not perfect, has been more consumer friendly in handing privacy issues than Facebook has. They allow adblocking in Chrome, they allow you to export your data from their properties, they allow you to delete your account, etc. Also Google&apos;s walled garden is more permeable than Facebook&apos;s.&lt;p&gt;So while data collection is creepy and monopolies are harmful, I trust Google more than I trust Facebook.</text></comment>
<story><title>Why I&apos;m Rooting For Google+</title><url>http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2011/07/why-im-rooting-for-google.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>timr</author><text>I don&apos;t get it.  Isn&apos;t anyone else as creeped-out by the idea of a Google social network as I am?&lt;p&gt;I&apos;m definitely not thrilled at the idea of Facebook being the One True Social Network, but the idea of a Google social network makes me sad, and more than a little nervous.  The fact that Google is trying to exploit their search dominance to funnel people into a Facebook competitor screams &quot;anti-trust violation&quot; to me, and the information-control consequences make me a little woozy -- I&apos;d rather that Facebook dominate the space completely than give Google any more of my personal information.  Google+ may not be evil, but it isn&apos;t exactly lily-pure, either.&lt;p&gt;I&apos;m hoping that this is another classic case of Nerd Blindness (much like Rob Malda&apos;s famous proclamation that the original iPod was &apos;lame&apos;):  Google has an exceptionally good technical reputation, so techies are foaming at the mouth to get access to their newest plaything, while &lt;i&gt;everyone else&lt;/i&gt; just sees this as an attempt by a gigantic company to destroy a good service that it sees as a threat.&lt;p&gt;Cheering for Google to win in the social network space seems to be to be a bit like hoping that IBM will take down Microsoft.  When giants fight, I can&apos;t summon up any other feeling than fear that the rest of us are going to get squashed.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Daniel14</author><text>&amp;#62; I&apos;d rather that Facebook dominate the space completely than give Google any more of my personal information.&lt;p&gt;I feel differently, but see quite a few (mostly non-technical) people agreeing with you - at least, here in Europe. Google already owns most of the data you&apos;ve given facebook, and treats it a lot better than fb imho (e.g. allowing export/deletion). I don&apos;t see why giving Google access to a bit more of your personal data will somehow decrease your quality of life.&lt;p&gt;The reason people are foaming at the mouth, as you call it, isn&apos;t the exceptionally good technical execution, but rather how Google handles consumers (giving them more rights over their data) and developers (they&apos;re the underdog, they have to). This is another reason I like Google entering social - Facebook has been behaving rather arrogantly, and it does seem like they really &lt;i&gt;own&lt;/i&gt; the social web [1]. But with Google acting as a threat, perhaps Facebook will be forced to soften up on some of its policies. Competition is a good thing, and I really doubt it will result in the rest of us getting squashed - In fact, I really believe we&apos;ll profit from those giants having to compete. 
For other reasons why G+ is anticipated highly, try &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.pcworld.com/article/234825/9_reasons_to_switch_from_facebook_to_google.html#tk.hp_fv&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.pcworld.com/article/234825/9_reasons_to_switch_fr...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lastly, IANAL, but I doubt promoting one of your products on one of your products is in any way illegal. The Google homepage has been showing us links to Docs, Reader, Gmail etc. for a long time without anyone getting upset about it.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/13/its-a-facebook-world-other-social-networks-just-live-in-it/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/13/its-a-facebook-world-other-...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>