The problem is that the privacy needs of the users of social networking sites are at odds with the commercial interests of the social networking sites.
Not necessarily. If Google is looking at stuff I share on google+ to find out more about me, I'm okay with it especially if they're targeting ads better. I know there will always be ads on websites, might as well suffer ads that I am more likely to be interested in.
The problem for Google+ is that people already have Facebook for their non-geeky friends so it has become primary for tech people who care more about these things.
Google+'s demographic is now like what Gmail's was long ago- Mostly geeky guys who got beta invites and their geeky friends who got invites passed on. It takes a while for things like email and social sites to propagate to a majority of the internet population (because most people are heavily invested in the predecessor)
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The problem is that the privacy needs of the users of social networking sites are at odds with the commercial interests of the social networking sites.
Not necessarily. If Google is looking at stuff I share on google+ to find out more about me, I'm okay with it especially if they're targeting ads better. I know there will always be ads on websites, might as well suffer ads that I am more likely to be interested in.
The problem for Google+ is that people already have Facebook for their non-geeky friends so it has become primary for tech people who care more about these things.
Google+'s demographic is now like what Gmail's was long ago- Mostly geeky guys who got beta invites and their geeky friends who got invites passed on. It takes a while for things like email and social sites to propagate to a majority of the internet population (because most people are heavily invested in the predecessor)