A small part of me can’t help thinking that Google circles feels more suited to a time which has passed. Had this existed 4-5 years ago, then perhaps it would have been more fitting (at least for me) and even shaped social interaction online. So far I use circles to categorize incoming information – they are handy to distill down your stream – but am not sure how (if) I will use them when publishing; I would rather leave the recipients open, let other people decide if my nonsense is worth engaging with.

The web is great when it is open; both services and information. This is one reason why blogging took off, it allowed people to publish to the world, it is also what makes Twitter so powerful.

There are times when you might need some extra privacy, for example, when working on projects at work or sharing baby photos with your family, however, overall, I like public broadcasting. Let those potentially interested in what you are sharing find you and engage if they want rather than you determining who will be interested and restricting access to others (often who you don’t know) with potentially valuable insight. The viral effect of the social web is powerful and circles restricts this.

For sure the volume of information being produced causes relevancy issues, however, I would rather focus on better ways to filter the signal I am interested in from a mass of public discussion than not have the opportunity to even access the discussion.