In praise of bubbles
Platforms are called 'social networks' for a reason. They're aimed at facilitating social exchanges. You build social circles on them. Round things, like bubbles.
Remember Google+ ? Of course you don't. Internet memories are short. It's been in the Google Graveyard now for a few years along with many other good, bad and ugly experiments the company that is now Alphabet has toyed with. Google is proof that online you owe no one anything. People loved Google Reader, didn't matter. BANG! dead. Not many people loved Google+, and you can understand why. It was a mess, trying to integrate into various Google services in ways that didn't make sense, making it harder for people to understand which information on their accounts was more public than they intended. People who didn't realise they had accounts discovered they did.. The minimalist, high-contrast Kennedy approach to unified aesthetics and UI aside, it was also... and data breachy. This isn't to unpack any of that old luggage, but to look at one thing G+ got right: Circles!
