Shipping the Google in Google+

I thought the advantage of having the +1 button in the browser is that you can then block all of those damn sharing widgets on websites so that these social networks don't know every website you visit because of the beacons.<p>But the +1 button extension will send <i>every page you visit</i> back to Google, with your unique user id as part of the information sent back.<p>This is just insane. There is absolutely no reason for this information to be sent back, and it is completely identifiable and all in plain text. The installer says that it <i>can</i> access all your website data, not that it <i>does</i> access it and <i>sends it</i> back to Google.<p>I removed the extension immediately.

&#62; all of the pages and URLs you visit will be sent to Google in order to retrieve +1 information<p>This is a deal breaker. There's no reason that Google couldn't have used a hash of the URL.

the chrome integration plugins look pretty good, but i really don't understand the utility of the youtube integration. if they had built some g+ sharing into the youtube interface, i could see that. but instead it looks like they've essentially built a youtube radio into the g+ page. why?

I was super excited when Google+ came out. I am a total Google fanboy. At least, I was a week ago. Then I found they didn't support their paying customers (apps users). So I waited and waited.<p>Finally supported a week ago! I'm PUMPED about trying google+. Except there's not a lot going on there and there is no api to integrate it with other social networks. It doesn't really have a purpose.<p>Then Google completely destroys Google Reader. My absolute favorite website can no longer create an RSS feed for other RSS users making it impossible for users to contribute content to Google reader.<p>Now I'm just pissed. Gmail is still the best mail service and I like my android phone, but Google has made so many terrible decisions lately - especially around Google plus - I don't care anymore. I'm done. If google decides to right its wrongs I will care about its services again.<p>If I were google I would drop everything and do the following as quickly as possible: 1.) Release an API for Google+ 2.) integrate google reader with google+. No, I'm not talking about adding a share button. I'm talking about full integration so that Google+ can feed data back into reader.<p>I doubt that they will be able to accomplish this fast enough to keep Google reader from dying. I'm sure some other service (like Hivemined) will fill the void, but they really need to get moving on that API if they want to save google+.

Hopefully the G+ chrome plugin will stay as a plugin. I'm not too keen on it being integrated into it as a product as a whole.

Is a popup really the best way to get YouTube into Google+?

That's not a smart integration in my view. Out of nowhere you place a youtube icon on a random location on the screen. And the pop up that follows that. You're basically switching the user's context when in fact your goal is to let her stick. There is something wrong going on with the UI design folks at google it seems.

Try letting people hangout with popular folks (from tech, media, science and other fields). Announce those hangouts. Let there be participants and viewers. Sell hangout guys!