If you’re commenting on Youtube, then you’ve probably got a Google Plus account. If you have a Google Plus profile, you probably have a Gmail account. Just like the merging of YouTube and Google Plus, Gmail and Google plus are about to get a lot more cosy, and I’m sure there will be a lot of discussions around these changes.
I received an email from the Gmail team, telling me of some changes about to be made to the way we can contact Google Plus connections. Basically we will be able to email anyone in our Google Plus circles without knowing their actual email address. Now this might actually be a good idea if you want to get a little closer to some of your Google Plus friends. After all, email is much less transient, and more permanent as a communication tool, leaving hangouts and other chat platforms for casual chats.
However, the ability to email is not going to be limited to anyone within just your circles – you’ll be able to email anyone on Google Plus. That’s right, you can email any of the hundreds of millions of people using (or at least existing) on the Google Plus platform without knowing their email address, as long as their privacy setting allows it.
Now, how does this work? Do you sign up for this new feature? No. Your Gmail account will automatically switch over to making your account completely open to any and all Google Plus members to search for you and start sending you stuff. In other words, this is an opt out feature, not opt in. And while I’m not yet convinced that linking Gmail and Google Plus is a good thing for anyone but Google, I’m extremely uncomfortable with making it a global change that you then have to reverse.
And I get the strategy here. Setting it to open by default increases the percentage of people that leave it open, through laziness or not understanding how it works, thus increasing the potential network connections for Gmail and Google Plus. Except we are talking about email, a much more private, personal space for most users than the more open social networking and in and out chats.
After all, even Google hint at their strategy themselves in the email I received, suggesting that if I get an email from someone outside my circles, which assumes you’ve left your privacy settings pretty loose, then I can add them to my circles and start a new conversation.
For me, email seems to be the last bastion of reasonably private communication. Now, unless you adjust your privacy settings to keep the hordes out, you may be bombarded with a bunch of emails from total strangers. And granted, these will be diverted to your social inbox on gmail. And I’m sure it will only be a matter of time before some smart spammer finds a way to hit all half a billion Google Plus users all day, everyday, and that would really annoy me.
So remember to opt out and change your privacy settings over the next few days if you don’t want every tom, dick and harriet knocking down your virtual door. What are your thoughts, does this sound like a good move for Gmail and Google Plus, does this make you love or hate Google more?