Google offers safer settings for higher class users, you're not one of them
A few days ago, I wrote a post about Google's new initiative to connect Google+ with Gmail, making it easy for anyone with your Google+ handle to email you without your email address. In that post, I made some strong accusations about Google knowingly endangering its user with policies that they would never apply to themselves. I likened it to politicians who wax on about public education, while sending their own kids to private schools. Today, I present confirmation of those
For "high-profile" users who may have thousands of users following them, Google has decided to make the default more limited. Those users will only be able to receive messages from Google+ users that they have actively put in circles. "Because you have a lot of followers on Google+, only people in your circles can contact you by default," reads the email Google sent out announcing the new feature to users with thousands of followers. This divsion between regular users and more popular Google+ users was reported earlier by MarketingLand and Reuters.
Make no mistake about it; Google protects the people who matter. It's a real shame if it happens that you're not one of them. Even if there is enough blow-back from all of this to force Google to change the policy, the only real way to be safe from such things is to stop using Google stuff.
From Verge commenter, Sanjaychandra
David Johnson