Should be a Tuesday's Tip! - Google Plus and Blogger

A few days ago someone commented to me via a blog post that by upgrading Blogger profiles to Google profiles it meant that some people who had chosen no to do that could not leave comments on blogs. Judy Webster very kindly checked for me and she was right. I was a little irritated as I do not want to stop people who choose not to alter their Blogger profile from leaving comments. I value those comments & the friendships that have been formed from blogging.

I need to dig around a bit more and find a way around this issue, if there is a way, but in the meantime, I have opened up my blog commenting to everyone including anonymous and switched on moderate comments. It is not perfect, but does sort the problem in the immediate future.

Meanwhile, I came across this, initially shared by
http://www.plusyourbusiness.com/beginners-guide-google-plus/


It caused me to ponder,  is Google really as scary as people think? And do the benefits outweigh the negative issues? It strikes me that Google want to have users embracing interaction and collaboration, yet are in some ways being short sighted.

I can only talk from my perspective. I like Google and their products, I like the way they are attempting to really push collaboration, interaction, engagement and development, because in this age of technology there really is no excuse to not be informed, involved and part of something our ancestors could not have, and probably didn't comprehend.

I am going to be really general here - people got on boats, either as free migrants and maybe they waved to friends and family as the boat/ship started to leave the waters of the homeland. Perhaps those people got on the boat wearing shackles and was terrified at what was to happen to them.

Either way, they got on a boat and sailed off to a new life, miles from their homeland. Knowing, in the main that communicating with their family and friends was no longer (or probably not) going to be possible. There was no email, phones, letters perhaps if they could write, then it took months to arrive. If it arrived, perhaps someone had to be found who could read the letter to them, someone had to help compose of a response.  You get the picture.

I have just taken part in the monthly hangout for the Guild of One Name Studies (www.one-name.org) the on line meeting was free (apart from our time) and was represented by members from USA, Canada, England, Spain. All possible with the technology of Mr (or Mrs) Google.

The initial thread is located HERE at Genealogy Leftovers - If people do want to merge the accounts, you can un-merge them, as long as you do it within the specified time limited - from memory 60 or 90 days, but Google does tell you at the point of merging!

Final points.

We are naturally programmed to interact with people we know, either we have met them in real life or we have interacted with them either via blogging or mailing lists.  We have a whole set of memories (probably) being told "do not talk to strangers".

Google+ focuses on the people we DO NOT know, but we might benefit from knowing based upon our common interest(s). The people that we have a common interest with, such as genealogy are placed into circles. I am not sure if that is obvious or not, but thought it worth mentioning. Thus I share my genealogical data, comments, interesting posts and so forth with my genealogy circle and my Guild of One Name Studies circle, pharmacy with the pharmacy circle, books with the book circle. I have at least four people in all three of those circles! So people in more than one circle is okay too!

I am not an expert, but I learnt and embraced Google based upon hints and tips from another Google girl (+Tessa Keough) so by way of paying forward if someone want assistance of has a question drop me a message, email or leave a comment.