Wednesday, July 20, 2011

almostfearless.com

almostfearless.com

Welcome to Google+ (You Can Check Out But You Can Never Leave)

Posted: 19 Jul 2011 11:10 PM PDT

Recently, I gave away Google+ invites to anyone who wanted them. So far, I really like G+. It seems to be an improvement over Twitter and if people widely adopt it, it could be a Facebook alternative. My first thought was, “Yay! Another social site, fun.”

Now that I’ve had a few days to play with it, something has bothered me about Google’s latest strategy. I can’t ever leave G+ far behind. Now if you’re an internet addict like me, you might employ the same kind of techniques I do to get stuff done. I don’t open Facebook and Twitter all the time — in fact, I spend huge chunks of time online, doing research and writing — but I don’t go on those social media sites at all. I use them like little writing breaks. The temptation is too great, and if I know myself at all, I know that if I have eight notifications waiting for me on Facebook, I’ll go check them. Then I’ll spend an hour reading conversations, commenting, following links, reading those articles, sharing them on my page and before I know it, I’m kicking myself saying, “I JUST WASTED MY CHILD’S ONLY NAP OF THE DAY TO READ STUPID CRAP ON FACEBOOK.”

The only way to deal with working online and not getting constantly distracted is to compartmentalize my life. Work here. Play there. I can do both but not at the same time. Fair enough?

Well, google thinks not. Perhaps this is best if I just show you.

This is my stream on Google+. See that red box in the upper right hand corner? That’s my notifications from Google + that I have new activity (new friends, new comments, new +1′s). Watch for it:

In case you missed it, here is the little notification box, I’m talking about:

GMAIL: Now here is my email account (look at that clean inbox!).  I use gmail, a google product.

GOOGLE DOCS: I also use google docs to create and share word and excel docs online.  It’s great for sharing a document between multiple people and maintaining version control (it updates real time and I can even see other people’s edits as they make them).

GOOGLE READER: I use this to keep a list of websites I like to read and to get their latest posts.

Maybe by now, you’re saying, “Yes, but you can just not use gmail, docs and reader.”  That’s true.  Should I also not use Google.com to search?

GOOGLE.COM (SEARCH):  Yes, I search for stuff.  Google thinks I should ALSO be checking Google+, apparently.

 

GOOGLE TRANSLATE: It doesn’t end.  Seriously.

Even here…

GOOGLE ACCOUNT SETTINGS: Yes, that’s right, there is no setting to TURN OFF THE NOTIFICATIONS, but if you go to your settings to look you will find this:

Everywhere I go now, I see this:

Even as I’m in a different tab, say working on this website, I can just look up and see this:

It’s like the RED EYE OF SAURON.  It’s following me everywhere.  Google+, Google+, Google+.

In fact, here is the the actual Red Eye of Sauron from The Lord of the Rings:

There’s a dozen other google properties who have the black bar installed, but they haven’t turned on the notifications yet (including Groups and Feedburner).  It’s made me aware of two important things:

1.  I have become increasingly reliant on Google products for virtual workflows, without realizing it.

2.  I haven’t considered the fact that I’m basically handing over my online office to a company that is not interested in my productivity.

Google, at it’s heart, is an advertising company.  They are not software developers.  They are not selling a product.  If I use their stuff, I become valuable because they can sell my eyeballs, my interest, my so-called “engagement” back to advertisers.  I am the product.  If I don’t accomplish a damn thing every day, except endlessly click around Google properties and earn them ad revenue, they are very happy.  It’s beginning to feel like I’ve entrusted my business with a company that is incentivized to make me play.  That doesn’t sound like a wise choice on my part.  The unfortunate fact is that they make easy to use, free, and well-connected products.

Eventually, they will have to change this.  I have no doubt.  Until then, here is my solution:

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