Google+ - The End Approaches

Yesterday, Google announced their recent business decision - to close the "consumer" portion of Google+ in 2019.

The decision was supposedly based jointly on one major security flaw, previously undisclosed - and on the frequently stated perception that low usage of Google+ justifies it being shutdown.

Google makes mistakes, as it moves ahead. Closing Google+ would be a major mistake.

The Digital Revolution - Maybe!

For the past year, I have been a customer of various convenience / fast food restaurants - and I have noted the elite customers using their smart phones to pay for their food / merchandise.

Recently, my bank added a "no contact needed" option on their ATMs, with advice that

You don't need your ATM Card any more - just wave your phone near the machine!

and I was properly motivated to add their app to my phone.

I next tried to use my phone to pay for my hamburger - but no good. The following day, I tried to pay for my coffee - and no good there, either.

Upon further research, I learned that

• Each bank, restaurant, and store requires that you add their specific app to your phone.
• Each bank, restaurant, and store requires that you setup an account with them.
• Each bank, restaurant, and store requires that you pre load a balance, into your account that you just setup.

In other words, the digital revolution does not replace my ATM card, my cash, or my "credit" / "debit" card. It just gives me another account to host my funds - before I purchase food or merchandise.

There is no digital "wallet" - just a collection of tiny digital "coin purses". And the banks, restaurants, and stores are collecting interest on the floating funds, represented by the coin purses.

And as I add each app to my phone, I find the phone running slower and slower. And my "bank" account runs thinner and thinner.

Impressed - not.

On the other hand, I note a serious concern, with carrying my phone everywhere.

Combining Blogger And Twitter

If you both publish a Blogger blog, and a Twitter TimeLine, you can combine the two.

You can publish your Blogger blog to your Twitter TimeLine - and you can publish relevant Twitter content, your own and others, on your Blogger blog.

Look at the sidebar here, for my Twitter gadgets, to see just two of many possibilities - if you are not using a mobile browser.

R.I.P., SiteMeter

As I noted in my earlier Real Blogger Status post, I've always advocated use of redundancy in essential services - and that included using SiteMeter and StatCounter, in a complementary role of monitoring visitor activity, in my various blogs.

Unfortunately, SiteMeter has chosen to attach video advertisements to their blog / website click agents, which subjects each blog visitor randomly to having unwanted (and invisible) videos played, each time they click on a blog link. I consider this action truly unconscionable.

Not wishing to subject my visitors (if any of you remain my visitors) to intermittent CPU and bandwidth drain, and mysterious unwanted audio, when visiting my blogs, I am in the process of removing the SiteMeter agent from each blog.

My apologies to each of you, for this obnoxious commercial malfeasance.

Personal Cyber Warfare And Other Conflicts

Before the Internet became a reality, most conflicts used to require physical proximity, to be considered seriously. Now that the Internet is part of our daily lives, many people who use the Internet, for various networking activities, have no idea of the possible challenges of Internet activities. With the Internet, conflicts can involve somebody in another city, state, or country, who is a complete stranger to the potential victim.

Many people, offended or threatened by an abusive comment or post in a Blogger / Google service, immediately report their concern to Blogger or Google, hoping that Google will obediently remove the offensive or threatening content. Not everybody realises that the varying nature of any given abuse, even when published in Google hosted space, won't always be the responsibility of Blogger / Google to provide action. Some conflict will require contact with somebody in your local area.

Some Internet based conflicts may take time and effort to resolve. The court system, which is currently based locally and nationally, may have to change as the Internet brings strangers, of different cultures and lands, together - and creates conflict.

Google+ - Expanding The GoogleSphere Again

This month, Google takes on both FaceBook and Twitter, and captures the good features of both - and more.

Google+ combines the community building possibilities of FaceBook, Following / Friend Connect, and Twitter. It adds, to the functionality of FaceBook, the built in ability to separate your personal, business, and other lives - so your future prospective employer never need learn about the last summer you spent debauching yourself. And it adds, to the functionality of Twitter, an unrestricted message length - not the imitation SMS message length limitation of 140 characters, that frustrates many Twitter users.

Yet, there are limitations and pitfalls. Owners of Blogger blogs, who are unaware of the involvement of Picasa in hosting the photos uploaded into their blogs, have learned the hard way that deleting photos from Google+ is a very bad idea.

We've learned how to publish to a Blogger blog from Google+, though a seamless technique for posting from Blogger to Google+ is yet to be provided.

Overall, though, Google+ is the new feature of the year. When you get an invitation, from a friend, this is one Internet service you will want to setup immediately, and to share with your friends - when you get the chance.

Personal Cyber Warfare - Defamation Is Not Impersonation

In in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, we see a fair number of complaints asking why Blogger won't remove a blog that contains trash talk (aka "libel" / "slander"), which is targeting them, personally.

Impersonation may involve identity theft, and is a TOS violation. Blogger / Google will resolve impersonation issues, by removing a blog or website that contains impersonation, when properly reported. Defamation, however, is not so simple.

What one person sees as libel or slander, another person (maybe in a different country, and bound by a different set of customs and laws) may see as free speech. Libel and slander are civil or criminal issues, which must be decided by the courts system. Other legal conflict will involve various governmental agencies - differing from country to country.

The Internet, in it's ability to casually bring together people from different geographical, legal, and political systems, is going to cause international conflict, from time to time. As each new Internet feature, such as the recently released Google+, debuts, we're going to see new forms of personality clashes. It will be interesting to see how all of the conflict shakes down.

Continuing To Paint Ourselves Into The Corner

Long ago, I wrote about overly restrictive security, and the literal tendency to paint ourselves into corners.

This month, the tradition continues, and we can see two prime examples with recent Blogger disturbances - people who cannot comment on certain blogs, and people who can't see the Followers gadget on any blogs.

Come on folks, if you're going to protect yourself, learn how to not block the services that you need.