The One Feature Google Plus Circles is Missing: Weighting
I’ll keep this short — the one feature Google Plus Circles is missing is weighting.
Here’s why:
Their current algorithm contributes to the Scoble Effect — Someone “big in Europe Half Moon Bay” posts something on there, and people keep commenting…and commenting…and commenting. That post stays to the very top, and my friends (who are not exactly few on Google Plus because some of them are among the digirati) are being pushed down. Even Scoble’s calling it a virus.
The most important people in my life are not Robert Scoble and Chris Brogan.
Because everyone wants tons of followers on Google Plus because of their follower model (like Twitter, not Facebook), and the low signal to noise ratio compared to Twitter, they’re going out of their way to comment on posts by people like Robert Scoble. Google Buzz had the same problem, which is why Facebook follows a different notification model.
Well, now that I can group friends, I should be able to weight how important some of the friends’ news is. For example, if I weighted my personal friends at 25 percent higher than everyone else, I should see their posts first above a Scoble or Solis.
What if you could control your own algorithm? Now, that would be cool. That would be Googlesque. More importantly, it would not be Facebook.
All it would take is a one slider — this group is more important versus less important to my feed. That’s all.
The filtering to the left is good, but it’s not enough — we should be able to create our own alogrithms. We filter in our mind, why can’t we see better streams here?