As far as I can tell, there is no way to send a direct message to anyone in G+, privately or publicly. There is no concept of a wall or a direct message. If I have to load Gmail in another window to do this, it is quite dumb. I see no reason why Gmail and G+ are not merged into the same product.
Also, showing the +1 button on comments only on hover makes it much less likely that I'm going to click on them. Why not just show them all the time?
The "send email" button, which is disabled/confusing to enable on most profiles, probably fits the "direct message" bill. Having a G+ profile implies you have (if not necessarily use) GMail, after all, and G+ does claim that your actual e-mail address is not revealed to the sender, either.
On the other hand, I could conceivably see a need to converse pseudonymously via the service, but being that G+ has taken the FB-like approach that urges users to create profiles that mirror their identity "as you are known to others," they probably do not have any urgent plans to implement a separate messaging service on top of G+ when they see GMail as a natural replacement.
I see no "send email" button, so I guess it's not enabled for me. Being able to send you a direct message does not require you to reveal your identity.
they probably do not have any urgent plans to implement a separate messaging service on top of G+ when they see GMail as a natural replacement.
That's why I don't see why Gmail's not already embedded in G+. But as you said, maybe it's just something which is not enabled for me yet. If it is enabled for you, how does the interface work? Does it pop up a new Gmail window? Does the receiver get an email or G+ notification?
Switch to Profile view, click Edit Profile, and click the (probably shaded/barely visible) "Send an email" button underneath your profile picture. There are a number of privacy options here, although, notably, "anybody on the web" still means "anybody with a Google profile" (or at least I couldn't get it to work unless I was logged in).
Senders see a popup window and indeed G+ does not reveal your e-mail address, which is as it should be. Receivers get an e-mail entitled something like "Message via your Google Profile" with the sender's Gmail account's from name/address.
My comment on G+ encouraging the use of your "real" identity was just meant to highlight that apparently Twitter is the outlier as far as social networking sites go, with regard to whether you can have a completely anonymous (or pseudonymous) conversation via PM. With G+, it seems clear they just want you to use GMail.
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As far as I can tell, there is no way to send a direct message to anyone in G+, privately or publicly. There is no concept of a wall or a direct message. If I have to load Gmail in another window to do this, it is quite dumb. I see no reason why Gmail and G+ are not merged into the same product.
Also, showing the +1 button on comments only on hover makes it much less likely that I'm going to click on them. Why not just show them all the time?
The "send email" button, which is disabled/confusing to enable on most profiles, probably fits the "direct message" bill. Having a G+ profile implies you have (if not necessarily use) GMail, after all, and G+ does claim that your actual e-mail address is not revealed to the sender, either.
On the other hand, I could conceivably see a need to converse pseudonymously via the service, but being that G+ has taken the FB-like approach that urges users to create profiles that mirror their identity "as you are known to others," they probably do not have any urgent plans to implement a separate messaging service on top of G+ when they see GMail as a natural replacement.
I see no "send email" button, so I guess it's not enabled for me. Being able to send you a direct message does not require you to reveal your identity.
they probably do not have any urgent plans to implement a separate messaging service on top of G+ when they see GMail as a natural replacement.
That's why I don't see why Gmail's not already embedded in G+. But as you said, maybe it's just something which is not enabled for me yet. If it is enabled for you, how does the interface work? Does it pop up a new Gmail window? Does the receiver get an email or G+ notification?
Switch to Profile view, click Edit Profile, and click the (probably shaded/barely visible) "Send an email" button underneath your profile picture. There are a number of privacy options here, although, notably, "anybody on the web" still means "anybody with a Google profile" (or at least I couldn't get it to work unless I was logged in).
Senders see a popup window and indeed G+ does not reveal your e-mail address, which is as it should be. Receivers get an e-mail entitled something like "Message via your Google Profile" with the sender's Gmail account's from name/address.
My comment on G+ encouraging the use of your "real" identity was just meant to highlight that apparently Twitter is the outlier as far as social networking sites go, with regard to whether you can have a completely anonymous (or pseudonymous) conversation via PM. With G+, it seems clear they just want you to use GMail.