A  visual  guide  to  Circles  in  Google  +  

By  Ross  Mayfield  

Circles  in  are  confusing,  but  are  at  the  core  of  what  Google  Plus  can  do  

for  you    By  Ross  Mayfield  

Google  Plus  Circles  are  lists  of  people  

You  can  make  lots  of  circles  to  list  your  people  

You  can  give  your  Google  Circles  names  or  lables  

The  names  you  give  your  circles  are  private,  nobody  can  see  how  you  label  

them  

A  circle  is  not  a  group  

•  Groups  have  membership,  can  be  public  or  private  and  discoverable  

•  Note  how  you  can’t  learn  from  the  circles  other  people  create  

•  Google  this:  Ridiculously  Easy  Group  Forming  and  Reed’s  Law  

Facebook  is  symmetric  sharing,  based  on  confirmed  Jes  

TwiKer  sharing  is  based  on  asymmetric  follow  

Google  Plus’s  Circles  are  Asymmetric  Sharing  

Google  Plus  lets  you  share  publicly,  extended  or  limited  to  your  circles  

What  you  see  in  your  stream  starts  with  people  you  share  with  and  they  share  back.  You  can  see  

menJons.  Incomping  is  everyone  who  shares  with  you  

You  only  see  the  comments  in  threads  that  someone  is  enricled  with  you  

started  

Good  things  about  asymmetric  sharing  in  Google  Plus’s  Circles:  privacy,  

management,  version  your  profile,  disable  reshare,  latent  connecJon  

Minuses  of  Asymmetric  Sharing