They do it by not bringing up the word "friend" everywhere, actually. Compare Wordpress versus Livejournal; the latter is practically a synonym for emo angst, e

They do it by not bringing up the word "friend" everywhere, actually. Compare Wordpress versus Livejournal; the latter is practically a synonym for emo angst, even though there are strong intellectual posts on the site, but the former doesn't have such a connotation. The problem with having a network with your friends is that there's a natural echo chamber that inhibits really high quality discussion. It's not impossible, but it's a lot harder. By touting circles as a way to follow completely random people, smart people who want smart posts will naturally gravitate towards other such people and it causes a network effect: at minimum, lots of sharing; at maximum, heavy duty responses. My favorite circled person in my 2000-odd list is some random academic in Idaho who I saw make a comment one day and decided to add. https://plus.google.com/112482032780181267192/posts https://plus.google.com/112482032780181267192/posts