

Google+ Circles - Thunderbird didn't want to implement it in 2009 - vkalladath
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=524354
My friend just sent me a feature request he made for Thunderbird which sounds similar to Google+ Circles idea.
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thasmin
This was certainly the right decision. Mozilla and Google have much different
goals, and it would have been silly for Mozilla to commit the necessary
resources to this idea when the benefits to Mozilla and the customer are not
guaranteed. Implementing this properly could take over a year and the end
result may not even improve the product.

Google decided to go forward with this project because the corporation will
greatly benefit if it succeeds. Mozilla does not have the correct payoff to
take the risk.

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jeffdavis
I don't think anyone is claiming that the concept of "circles" is a radical
innovation. It's quite natural, and similar (if not identical) ideas have been
expressed many times before (from what I've heard about "circles" anyway).

What's news is that Google is putting its full weight behind the idea,
including a slick implementation. And it might turn out to be a better
alternative to Facebook, which would mean a big shift in the markets over the
next few years.

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naqabas
Exactly. Just like this company called Beluga - <http://belugapods.com/>. They
use 'pods' instead of circles.

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zacharypinter
As is often reiterated on Hacker News:

Ideas are a dime a dozen. Implementation is everything.

~~~
mtkd
Patenting is everything. Until that is fixed - innovation is a tarpit.

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lallysingh
The title's a little suggestive. It was an 'enhancement' bug request, and the
response was that it should be implemented as an extension. Then it was marked
WONTFIX. The assignee thought it sounded cool.

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rcthompson
Yeah, the bug report wasn't closed because they didn't want the feature, it
was closed because they decided it made more sense as an extension.

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rachelbythebay
<http://info.lycos.com/releases.php?id=1550>

"LYCOS KEEPS YOU IN THE LOOP WITH CIRCLES, A UNIQUE, NEW SOCIAL SHARING
PLATFORM" -- from 2004.

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omouse
Does anyone know if GNU Social shares similarities with Google+?

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cpearce
That's the last straw. I'm switching back to Lynx and Mutt!

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drivebyacct2
Haven't various sharing models that look very similar to Circles been around
for some time?

I have LOTS of friend lists on Facebook. I have Close Friends, Family,
Teacher/RA/Restricted, Strangers and then my cohorts broken down by class for
various reasons. Now, sometimes Facebook extrapolates from privacy settings
for a post and changes my global privacy setting which is annoying but it's
trivial to keep an eye on it.

But basically, my geeky posts get my cohorts, my funny posts get posted openly
and my rants about drug policy or whatever are blocked from my family.

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lhnn
As someone who hasn't tried Google+:

Is it implemented as a UI of Gmail, or is it its own site?

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scarmig
Own site. Vaguely similar to Facebook, but less "formish" and more
interactive. Black bar at top.

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golgo13
I now have the black bar at the top, too. But I am not using Google+. I wonder
if the black bar is getting rolled out to everyone.

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nextparadigms
It is. It will be on all Google's properties. You won't see anything about
Google+ on it until you get an invite or it goes public, though.

~~~
esrauch
No black bar on Youtube

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Duff
Mozilla doesn't want to do something? Shocking!

This is the same organization that feels that producing a MSI installer for
Windows or providing some other way to customize the installation/patching
experience is a waste of time.

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sp332
Not to repeat the same "then do it yourself" thing, but if it were really so
important to so many corporations, wouldn't one of them have done it (or
hired/sponsored someone to do it) by now? I'm just getting the impression
that, for all the yelling, it's not that big a deal.

~~~
Duff
Yeah, sure. Expecting a third-party to maintain an installer is not a recipe
for success. A few projects try to do that and provide some sort of group
policy support -- but they're trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. It
just doesn't work well.

Security updates are a bigger deal. Auto-update doesn't cut it with large
networks with constrained bandwidth or where users don't have admin rights.
When you use sane installers, that problem magically disappears.

My previous employer was willing to invest some $ to give back to Mozilla for
just this purpose, but was unable to contact anyone at Moz who gave a crap.

My current employer gave up -- we automatically uninstall Firefox as it
appears. Our primary browser is now Chrome -- 80% of intranet hits are Chrome
today. Chrome addresses most of these issues, and my users are happy. (Except
for the users of some Oracle app that uses IE6)

The Mozilla people are fat and happy because of the ad deal that they have
with Google. When Google decides that they don't need Firefox anymore, the Moz
folks will probably wish they hadn't given a virtual finger to all IT folks.

