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> anyone on its social network will be able to send messages to your Gmail inbox. i don't get it. isn't that how email works? what people are currently not a

• jaredsohn 13y ago
  The difference is that you don't need to know what the person's email address is. On Facebook, you can send a message to anyone from their profile, but it shows up within Facebook rather than the person's e-mail client (and it shows up in 'other' too.) Edit: Facebook did not email me the last time I received something in my Other inbox (but that was a couple of years ago); perhaps that has changed? Edit2: Being able to send a Google+ message from your e-mail client is a nice convenience that takes advantage of the fact that Google owns both properties. (It would be nice if it also provided a lookup for Facebook users.) I think that is all that this is, which means there is no controversy. I imagine you could already write someone a message that shows up in their email without knowing what their email address is by messaging them within Google+. If that is the case, this change is purely an added convenience that doesn't impact spamming at all.
  • jayd16 13y ago
    Except that Facebook will also email you about that unless you opt-out just like Google+.
    • chilldream 13y ago
      Facebook didn't staple their social network onto a non-social-network service after the fact, and then demand you sign up for it. Not everyone on Google+ actually wants to be on Google+.
  • jere 13y ago
    >The difference is that you don't need to know what the person's email address is. And that prevents what exactly... people sending you email? I don't get it.
    • wmf 13y ago
      Some people are really touchy about receiving mail from anyone they don't already know. Based on this thread, quite a few people.
    • jerf 13y ago
      Email has a light-weight de facto security system where people can't send you an email without knowing your address. Obviously, this isn't perfect, and it was never truly a security feature, but, nevertheless, it is there, and for all of its manifold and obvious faults, it mostly works this way. People are used to this. Taking it away will bother people.
  • brownbat 13y ago
    > The difference is that you don't need to know what the person's email address is. Now they need to know a different piece of pseudo-public information, your G+ username. Isn't this just a lateral shift? I mean, there's still a "report spam" button, right?
• shric 13y ago
  Those who know your name but not your email address.
• bane 13y ago
  Even better, pretty much anytime anybody does anything on my facebook page I get an email from FB letting me know about it. Marco has clearly just lost it.
  • joelrunyon 13y ago
    But that person isn't directly emailing you.
    • nhangen 13y ago
      Exactly. Perhaps parent has lost it.
      • res0nat0r 13y ago
        Good lord these Facebook / Google hate posts are getting out of control and are becoming comical in their faux rage IMO. Do we have a name for a new meme where if a company makes more than X billions of dollars we automatically hate them no matter what they do? My email address has never been opt-in, ever since I started using email back in 1994. Don't want people to email / communicate with you, maybe you shouldn't sign up for a social network? Google is linking your GoogleMail inbox to your Google+ account to facilitate communication. Don't like it? Opt out and calm down.
        • nhangen 13y ago
          The point is that we want to like Google, but they're making it difficult. Quit confusing frustration for hate. You're right that we can delete our G+ account. The point is that we're trying to explain to Google why it might not be in their best interest to add 'features' like this, at least without an opt-out mechanism.
          • res0nat0r 13y ago
            Opt out is located at: Gmail Settings > Email Via Google+ > Who can email you via your Google+ profile? > No one.
• lostsock 13y ago
  The uproar is over someone being able to send email to you using your name (or your G+ profile in this case) without you explicitly giving them your email address... I don't get it either