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" Sure, Facebook is a great way to keep in touch with acquaintances and to reconnect with old friends, but now that everyone and their uncle is on the social network, it&amp;#039;s likely that you think twice every time you hit &amp;quot;Share.&amp;quot; Facebook&amp;#039;s privacy controls are robust, and pretty customizable, but they also change frequently and, let&amp;#039;s face it, can get pretty complicated depending on how many different groups of people you connect with on the social network. Google is hoping to remedy that with the Google+ project, its answer to Facebook and a nifty way to integrate your already robust online life.  The most basic building block of Google+ is the &amp;quot;circle.&amp;quot; It&amp;#039;s a way to organize all of your Gmail contacts based on your relationship to them \u2014 and how much you want them to be able to see of your posts and personal information. Some basic circles to start with are friends, acquaintances, and family. To those, I added college friends, professional contacts, &amp;quot;the girls,&amp;quot; foodie friends, and neighborhood people. Contacts can belong to multiple circles (after all, your social circles probably defy simple categorization) and circles can be as large or small as you want them to be. Once you start posting to your profile, you can select which circles will be able to see what you write every time you post. It&amp;#039;s similarly easy to determine what is visible of your personal information and photos (which you can connect from your Picasa account, if you have one). Beyond posting photos, updates, links, and videos, Google+ also integrates seamlessly with your Google searches. Once you sign up, you&amp;#039;ll start seeing +1 symbols next to links every time you search on Google. This is an easy way to share links that you like or are important to you. Your Google+ friends can see them on your profile and your friends&amp;#039; +1&amp;#039;s will show up in results when you search. Not sure whether Google+ is for you? If Facebook&amp;#039;s ever-shifting privacy policies make you nervous, but you still want a way to connect with friends and contacts online, Google+ offers an easy way to do so, but still control how much information you share. And if you&amp;#039;re just starting out in social networking and have a Gmail account, you already have built-in friends for Google+ based on your Gmail contacts. It&amp;#039;s still in a limited testing program right now, but Google+ is expanding rapidly, so don&amp;#039;t be surprised if you see an invite in your inbox soon. Have you had a chance to check out Google+ yet? What did you think? And, if you&amp;#039;re a Facbeook user, how do you think Google+ is going to fit into your digital life? Let me know in the comments! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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