Learning To Spell

Walking Around In Circles: As Google+ Opens Up Will People Start Using It ...

But tonight, Google started dishing out invites for early users to spread around as they see fit. As far as I can tell, the service is seeing a massive influx of new users right now — a lot more than yesterday. And while Google’s servers appear to be handling the new load just fine, I do wonder what this will mean for the underlying principles of the site. Namely, will people start using Circles in the correct way?

By “correct”, I don’t mean to suggest that there is a set way to use Google+. But it’s no secret that Circles are a huge part of what the service is supposed to be about. Google has spent a lot of time and energy working on what they believe to be the correct system for grouping people together for the purpose of sharing content online. But again, right now, most people seem to be sharing to “Public” and not actually using their Circles.

That type of usage doesn’t seem tenable as Google+ gains users. Imagine the service having over a million users (which would be quite low for Google) — while you’ll still be in control of what posts you see, the comment sections will likely be too much. And people re-sharing other content will lead to too much noise.

More importantly, that would make Google+ just another slightly different version of Twitter, Facebook, etc. Then it becomes a question of “why share here instead of there?” — and that’s not something I’m sure Google can win coming to the game so late.

I think Google knows all of this. I don’t believe they’re setting out this time with the intention of trying to win that game. They did that with Buzz, and they lost . The emphasis with Google+ is on using Circles as a sort of natural filter. The hope is that you’ll share within Google+ the same way you do in the real world. You’ll send certain things to your close friends, other things to your co-workers, other things to your college buddies, etc.

But as everyone has learned over the years, getting users to create and use groups is hard. Just ask Mark Zuckerberg. No one wants to do it .

With Google+, Google has created the most visually appealing and simple way to create groups yet (better than even Facebook’s revamped Groups ). But I’m still not entirely sold that people will do it. Or at least not to the extent that Google hopes.

PowellsBooks.Blog – Learning to Spell - Powell's Books

I will never forget how to spell Wednesday. When I was six my parents decided to emigrate from the UK to New Zealand, my father being certain that a third world war was going to break out and that we would all be annihilated by nuclear bombs. We lived in a suburb (as it then was) of Auckland, called Three Kings, where I immediately started at the local school. On the first day my mother came to collect me at the appointed time but I was not at the school gates — I had been "promoted" to the next higher class, which did not leave until a little later in the afternoon. The following day my mother came at the new time, but again I was not there, having been promoted once more. When I reached the class for ten-year-olds my parents were told that I couldn't be promoted any further, even though I already knew more than my classmates. This was not because I was particularly clever, but because of the level of education of my peers — a consequence of the difference in the levels of primary school education between the two countries more than half a century ago. The one thing I can recall learning at that school was how to spell Wednesday — if I remember correctly the class took a whole morning before we all knew how to spell it, and we learned it in three groups of three letters: W-E-D, and then when we had mastered the first group we learned N-E-S, etc. After that experience, how could I ever forget it?

Incidentally, my mother soon became very homesick and within six months we were back on a boat, the Rangitiki, heading for Blighty. The five-week journeys provided far more for me in the way of learning than I gleaned from those few months at school in Three Kings. We went through the Panama Canal in each direction, I saw Pitcairn Island and learned about the mutiny on the Bounty (whose crew were the ancestors of most of today's inhabitants of the island). I also learned how hot the sun can be, when I came down with sunstroke while standing on the deck looking out over the island of Curaçao.

And I know how to spell Wednesday.

Still in Oxford

Yesterday evening, after the "companions" meeting, we were taken to dine at Exeter College , which was founded in 1314, ending the meal with the traditional glass of Port.

The chapel at Exeter College

This morning I broke my "no breakfast" rule and enjoyed a traditional English breakfast. I don't normally eat breakfast, and haven't done for most of my adult life, even though I have heard it said many times that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. To be honest I find most breakfasts somewhat uninteresting, and I usually work much better on an empty stomach than on a full one, so often I also miss lunch as well and make do with one meal a day, when I can enjoy my food to the full, thanks to a really healthy appetite. But for breakfast I usually make an exception when staying in a hotel that offers something a little special, and the Old Parsonage was certainly special in this respect.

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