There is a lot of discussion going on about Klout: what it measures, how it measures, how important or not it is. As with everything, it is a matter of perspective and Klout is pretty good at using perspective.
Today in the afternoon I had a hangout with +Mark Striebeck (Gmail's Product Manager) and one of the things mentioned was the difference between private space (Gmail) and public space (G+). I pointed out that the integration is already being done: as soon as you add someone to one of your circles, the e-mail address associated with their Google account isimmediately and automatically added to your contacts to Gmail in a folder called "Other Contacts." What most users don't know is if you delete anyone in the "Other Contacts" folder in Gmail, those users will also be deleted from the circles where you've placed them in G+.I still don't understand the reason why, when I add someone to a circle on G+, I gain direct access to the e-mail account associated with that user in my Gmail.What confuses and worries me more is when someone adds me to any of their circles they immediately have my e-mail address in their Gmail contacts. Even if you don't use Gmail as your primary e-mail address, I think this practice opens the doors for our Gmail addresses to start being hit by spam sooner rather than later. While having a talk about this subject with +Donna Winter something else occurred to me: What will happen when users from Google Apps get access to G+ with their Google Apps account, which is usually their main professional e-mail? If the integration continues like it currently has, any user will have access to the professional e-mail addresses of millions of users by simply adding them to a circle. Likewise, the brands that are now on G+ have the possibility to harvest e-mails just by adding users to a circle and use them for whatever purposes they see fit This is reason enough, in my opinion, to block them immediately. The way I see it, there should be a way to opt-out of this seamless integration between G+ and Google contacts.What do you think?
As with any new social network the biggest complaint people have about Google+ is that their friends are not there. In my first impressions review I describe a method that allows you to export your Facebook contacts directly to Gmail thus making them available on Google+. As soon as the invites are available again you will be able to invite your friends.
Rovio has made available stage 6 for the classic "Angry Birds" game with 16 new levels that take place underground.
Not happy with that the people at Rovio have also made available the "Carnival Upheaval" stage on Angry Birds Rio!
I am sure that these updates have nothing to do with the end of the school year, right?
