google-

So: the Goog takes a fun-filled swat at young upstarts The Crook and the Twit with Google+, bringing us added style, circles, sound and video.... Facebook's response of getting into bed with Microskype looks very desperate indeed, perhaps even suicidal.... watch them fall off their perch hard and fast - does anyone remember Myspace?

But what is Google+ bringing us, other than a welcome way to escape from The Crook? Is the Goog simplifying its own complex mess by integrating Buzz, Gmail, and the profiles and social networking facilities of Blogger, YouTube, and Google reader? No - not yet at any rate... Is it enhancing our real face-to-face in-the-flesh social or work lives? Nope... Is it giving us back the time that The Crook and the Twit have stolen? Nope.... Is it leading us away from inanity and superfluity? Nope.

What I want to see is Google-, whereby all social networking, including email, is replaced by something totally new-paradigm, non-commercial, distributed, stunningly simple, intuitive, and symbolic rather than verbal... realistically this is more likely to be provided by reawakening our natural powers of telepathy, rather than hopping on yet another technology bandwagon.... bring it on! We need it for when the lights go out....