Google +Circles: share what matters, with the people who matter most

Not all relationships are created equal. So in life we share one thing with college buddies, another with parents, and almost nothing with our boss. The problem is that today’s online services turn friendship into fast food—wrapping everyone in “friend” paper—and sharing really suffers:

• It’s sloppy. We only want to connect with certain people at certain times, but online we hear from everyone all the time.
• It’s scary. Every online conversation (with over 100 “friends”) is a public performance, so we often share less because of stage fright.
• It’s insensitive. We all define “friend” and “family” differently—in our own way, on our own terms—but we lose this nuance online.

In light of these shortcomings we asked ourselves, “What do people actually do?” And we didn’t have to search far for the answer. People in fact share selectively all the time—with their circles.

From close family to foodies, we found that people already use real-life circles to express themselves, and to share with precisely the right folks. So we did the only thing that made sense: we brought Circles to software. Just make a circle, add your people, and share what’s new—just like any other day:

Related Reads:

• Introducing the Google+ project: Real-life sharing, rethought for the web
• Google +Sparks: strike up a conversation, about pretty much anything
• Google +Hangouts: stop by and say hello, face-to-face-to-face
• Google +Mobile: share what’s around, right now, without any hassle
• Google +Huddle: a group messaging experience that lets everyone inside the circle know what's going on, right this second

» Introducing the Google+ project: Real-life sharing, rethought for the web | Official Google Blog