For one, I would have never adopted a new service so early in the process, had not Google forced it onto me: I opened my Gmail to find it in the left frame, and I had not asked for it, I don't really like being pushed into anything, when it is not necessarily the right time for me. It's not like you can ignore it, the icon flashes like a bell in your ear – and trust me, I am used to bells in my ears at home, and I know how to ignore them! but I didn't need an extra one on my work space.

I use Gmail to work, that's it, not to be social necessarily. It feels like all of a sudden your office would be turned into a bar or a cafeteria, without any warning whatsoever. If you don't want to hang out…

I haven't even been able to see the specifics of the settings (private/public – follow/unfollow – find people, etc…) because I had other things to do. So the result will be that I will probably develop some kind of tolerance to ignoring the new shiny icon, and that's probably not what the goal was in the first place!

I am looking forward to seeing how it goes, because even if my first reaction is sheer reluctance – and a little bit of annoyance – I am always open to changing my mind and joining the cruise.

And it's also an absolute piece of Sh… in my opinion.