I did it for ease and integration. I write on a Mac, but I make fun of the Macolytes who walk around in the Cult of Mac superiority. Personally I run Ubuntu Linux on my Mac, I keep OSX on a separate partition only so that I can assist my mother with her computer when issues arise (and they do). Those people who have to have their Iphone, and their Ipod, and there Mac they in some ways have a good idea going.
Google did the same thing but on a software scale not on hardware. I applaud them for this. Just as every “I” product works practically seamlessly together the same is true for Google’s many services. I have a Google account, a youtube account, a Google drive account, a gmail account, a Google plus account and of course a Blogger account, they all sync up perfectly. I happen to have and Android phone, again a Google product. As it happens these all sync quite beautifully.
This integration alone is far better than what I had going on over at facebook. Google Plus is more secure, you have more ways of controlling exactly what anybody sees on Google Plus than in Facebook. You have full control of almost every aspect of your security. You can even share your photo albums with non Google Users without making them fully public, you can’t do that with Facebook.
One thing that was constantly frustrating me over at Facebook was their horrible rewriting and changing of their security settings. Not only did they not care, but they would for the longest time reset your settings to the most lenient possible. All the information on a social network can be used to profile you and steal your identity but Facebook didn’t care.
Google’s approach is a bit different. Yes Google shares your personal information in terms of sites visited, what your interests are… but they do it differently. They mask you, they allow you to show others what information you want. Google’s robots pick up information but they don’t target you, they target a profile that looks like you so they can better advertise and make money. They are smart about it and well they are better at it than the competition.
Now I haven’t ditched my twitter/pinterest account yet, but this is only because some of the media outlets I’m attached to haven’t made the switch. As they begin to I’ll be ready. I’m already on Google full force and I don’t intend to leave there for some time.
-BrotherLeRoy
