Google gave original Mac designer free rein on new Google+ UI - Page 2

I believe there's a distinct difference. They are sharing the info for one of 2 reasons enumerated: 1) So that ATT or Verizon can provide you service, 2) so that Apple can improve its own products, services and advertising...NOT for third party marketing.

Conversely, the reason google exists is to share information (again, directly with your permission or otherwise in aggregate) for third party marketing.

Apple gathers and shares your information to make their products better. For goggle, your information IS their product.

. . . nor does Google give your information to 3rd party marketers. Read their privacy policy.

And note that Apple is not saying the given examples are the only ways your private information is shared.

The difference that stands out to me between the two? Google specifies you must opt-in if your personal info is to be shared with any 3rd party. Apple does not. That doesn't necessarily mean there's a practical difference between how the two actually use your personal data, but Google is much more specific with their policy and leaves less wiggle-room open to interpretation.

Potato vs potahtoe. To me, it's all about data collection. The fact remains that Apple's business is hardware, not information, and they want to sell me computers so they can separate me from my hard earned coin. google's business is information and instead of my coin, they want my bona fides so they can sell advertising...directly, indirectly, upside down or backwards. The more complete my information portfolio, the more valuable to them, hence all the "free" tools.

Any Social networking platform will HAVE to be based off of the "ad" model unless they makes one so amazing that people would pay a ton of money for (read: It won't happen because people are cheap) This is why Apple won't move into this field, or if they do, it will be with a renewed push with iAds (aka, selling your information)

Facebook integration would be an easy way to shift people, just like how you can post from twitter to facebook status. May not really be taking people away from Facebook but certainly you could grow your membership easily enough if you have some cool features they can take advantage of.

Also, if people are already gmail users & it is rolled out as just another aspect of google apps it would be almost mindless for most people.

After using it for 4 hours I think there are three stand out features that (for the moment) blow facebook away in terms of usability:

1: Sharing is intuitive. While you can do selective sharing in Facebook, it is really complicated. Whenever you write a post, it will have the "circles" (groups) you're sharing it with will be a big blue "tag" below your post. Don't want to share it with them? Click the X (like tagging in a blog). If you want to add a circle or a name, you can either search for it, or just do +Name. This is better (imo) than facebook that trys auto completing everything.

2. Hangout/Huddle. The system seems to use normal Google talk (or something that works with google talk) for individual chat, but the really outstanding messaging features is the mobile Huddle (think Groupchat) because it's cross platform and adding people is done exactly like sharing updates. And then Hangout is just an amazing. One neat feature is that whoever was talking would automatically be given the largest screen (but you can lock this to a specific person if you want). Also, the sharing youtube video feature was kinda neat, though in the end we just started rick rolling eachother.

3. The Simplicity. When facebook first came out, one of the reasons a lot of people gravitated to it is that it was simple. There were no sparking backgrounds, animated gifs, etc. like you found on myspace, just your friends talking about their day and sharing links with eachother. (after the added the "wall" feature anyway) but as Facebook became more popular it also became bloated. This website is simple, and it's well designed. There is a lot of visual "flare" that doesn't add functionality (per se) but it does make the site a lot nicer to look at.

Google+ won't be for everyone, but I don't think this will be another Buzz/Orkut either.