Kit Kat 4.4: Frustrating Betrayal - Thank Heavens for Apex Launcher

** warning, this is an informative rant **

The fateful email.

So I got an email from Motorola about an update for my Moto X (Kit Kat 4.4). After the iOS 7 update I've been super wary and distrustful (can't stand my iPod anymore), so I decided to check and see if it was coming to my phone and then look it up to decide if I wanted it or not. Big mistake.

Motorola didn't mention in the email that just checking to see if there was an update would start the download automatically -- a download I couldn't stop, even by hard rebooting my phone. (They've lost my trust now.)

So while the download was going on, I sadly and helplessly looked up what might be about to impose itself on me. It's iOS 7 crap.* Flatter, whiter, sterile. Why is everyone trying to copy Apple?!

But one of the worst things is that they stuck Google Now on the left home screen, like Apple's annoying and screen-wasting search in iOS 6. (You know, I think that may be the only feature I really hated in iOS 6...)

So now they have the one feature of iOS 6 I really disliked and none of the positives. If they are trying to copy Apple (the way it looks) they're lagging an update behind. I don't see why they felt the need to do this though -- they already had the pull-up menu on the lock screen and home screens.

If Google had really wanted to make Google Now more accessible and useful, they should have let users put cards on their Google home screen when they open Chrome, and input info about exactly the kinds of cards they'd like and info about themselves. It would be the best way for users to see how cards apply to them, and put cards where they're most likely to be useful. (Not to mention giving Google more user info -- win, win.) Where do most people go for a web search? Their browser. We're well trained. That's the best place for these cards, if they want us to use them consistently. (But I get the feeling they and several other companies are trying to train users to do things differently.)

Google's getting really annoying (and scary) about being pushy. They make something new, but then instead of letting it stand on its own, they try to rub our noses in it and force us to use it. This is only the latest example.

Here on my blog, every time I open my Dashboard, I get hit with a big splash ad urging me to merge my Blogger with Google Plus, using my G+ profile instead of my Blogger one and auto-sharing my posts on G+. And when I open my posts to edit them (which has been multiple times per day) I get stuck with a splash ad telling me how I can now tag people's G+ profiles in my post. Why would I want to do that?! If people want to read my blog, they will. I'm not going to shove it at anyone. I write to share my interests with people who may also like them, and if I'm lucky, inform people and maybe get to know them and what they think of things.

My boyfriend just reminded / informed me that YouTube has now been updated so that if you want to post videos or comment, you have to have a G+ profile. At least they haven't set it up so that you have to have a profile to even see videos -- opp, better watch my mouth or I'll give them ideas.

I maintain that G+ is a pseudo social network. I'd argue that it's more like a social blogging platform where the bloggers get to add you to their audience -- some blogger's dream, maybe. But I think it's more like having my eyelids removed.

I'm in the circles of so many strangers... At one point I tried to add them all to a circle called "Who are you?" So I could look them up and try to figure it out later, but I quickly gave up. They were complete strangers and we had nothing in common. Yet my feeds grew full of their stuff.

Yes, I could look at one circle at a time, but I still feel like someone left the front door to my home open, and looking at one circle at a time is time consuming and brain exploding. It wouldn't be so bad if I got paid to use G+; all those hours would be worthwhile. But as it stands, I have other things to do besides wade through piles of mass-mailed text from strangers. (I'm drawing a distinction between mass-mailing and stuff sent specifically to me, like blog comments or emails or Facebook messages -- I welcome those.)

Maybe I'm missing the point. After all, I'm writing to probable strangers right now. I do that on Facebook too. It's not a horrible thing. (I think it's cool in the right context) And sometimes, if I'm lucky, we'll start talking and get to know each other a bit. But on Facebook (and here) I feel I have a measure of control, like I have layers of privacy and publicity. I get to control what goes into my feed / blog, what gets published and who sees it and who I friend. Only my friends get to see one layer. My family sees another, acquaintances another. Facebook did a good job of figuring out how people's social lives are layered. Google may have led that feature, but Facebook perfected it.

On the other hand, Google is set up to encourage sharing to as many people as possible -- even to make things public. Rather than "share to friends" their big default is "my circles" and "extended circles." But wait! Are they assuming that all the people in our circles are friends, since we added them? What about the fact that we're constantly being pushed (there it is again) to add people  (The aforementioned strangers) who add us? They constantly remind us that we can just add them to a circle and thus keep our privacy and control of who we publish to -- then they push us to share everything to all our circles. Am I the only one who spots the flaw here? Extended circles just raises that problem / flaw to an exponential level. So you've got all these strangers in your circles and they've got more strangers in theirs ... By the time it's over, you might as well have hit "public" not to even mention second and third level sharing.

Like I said, it's great for blogging but not for having a multilayered social life and keeping in touch with people you know from real life. And I'm not even talking about the way Google pushes you to add everyone in your gmail, then pushes you to share things with them even if they're not on Google Plus, then sends them spammy emails linking to G+ and pushing them to join. (In my experience, this is a good way to make people irritated with you. What's terrible is when it happens accidentally because you got pushed into adding them to a circle which you forgot doing and then pushed into sharing with "your circles" which obviously includes even "I won't post to this one." But who can remember every person added to every circle?) The system isn't currently well-designed for keeping in touch or having friends whose lives you can keep up with without having  to read several pages per post.

This is why, when people draw correlations between Google Plus and Facebook, I shake my head. G+ might have the basis to one day become an awesome social network and way to keep in touch with people, but it isn't right now.

Disagree or think I missed something? Post a comment and I'll happily respond.

Thanks for reading my
RiWriting

P.S. I've been hard at work everyday since starting this blog on articles, research for future articles, blog layout, widgets, code, and research on not-infringing-image-copyrights. Bless those Flickr people who set their pictures as Creative Commons! Anyway you have a lot to look forward to. Stay tuned for:

"Pusheen the Cat, Holiday Stress Relief, and Wish List Roundup Part I" 

I've been working really hard on this one every day!

Also coming soon: "Holiday Wish List Roundup Part II: Apps"
"Holiday Gift Ideas: Give the Gift of Experiences"
"Adventure Game App Roundup"
"Egg Custard Recipe, Tweaked to Perfection"
"Musings on Pot Roast: My Take"

Do you see anything in there about automatic download?

*Ok, Kit Kat does have a cool feature: phone book and Google integration.)