Google Communities: Now, That's More Like It

   If you are among the few who have read my first posting about Google+, you are aware with how unimpressed I was with it. I am not really concerned with the opinions of celebrities, even if they are the most generic and upbeat messages. I don't care to follow or +1 any businesses as I consider it a lazy way of telling them that I enjoy their products (to the various companies with pages, I support your products with my money, asking for them by name if necessary). The suggested "interesting" people were just not posting anything remotely interesting to me. Then I got informed (I think it was probably an email or post from Google) that Google+ had new "communities" to explore.
   At first, the suggestions were the same safe, bland topics that I was dreading seeing whenever I went "exploring". However, when I realized that I could search for communities that matched my interests, well, that made all the difference. This is also why I am only checking in at Facebook, not really actively doing much while I am there.
   FB keeps suggesting "friends" (I have 1 so far, my choice), some are friends of a friend and others...I don't where they get them. Perhaps it's because of my "friending" (I certainly don't do enough to create the impression that these "friends" imply however exciting they seem to be) or maybe it is my activity on here and other websites that does it. It matters not at this time, because I haven't quite decided just what in the world I could post that would be interesting and I just don't know these people well enough to embarrass myself and subject them to the fact that I read yet another newspaper article.
   But, back at Google+, I found it easy to find a few communities that might match my tastes. That's when the algorithms kicked in and started telling me about even more that might be worth joining. Although they are all new, some have really picked up steam and are filled with postings. Stuff I want to read and comment on or even add a post to myself. I am certainly glad that I did not know about my Google+ account until recently, because if I had started back in '11, I would have never come back after the first few looks.
   As to the writer who commented about posts suddenly vanishing, track down those "missing in action" from your circles and find out where they went and tell them that you miss them. Or change your settings and get your stream in a different way. Sure, it's changed from the way you were used to it appearing, but change is always happening and I think that this is for the better.
   If you haven't looked into the communities yet, just type in a few of your own ideas for groups to search for and I am sure that you will find something interesting. Some are invitation only, but most will allow you to look at the stream and get an idea of what that is going on in the same way that you can look at someone's public postings.
   I am not "rah-rahhing" Google+ (their own postings seem to be a little too much like commercials for my tastes), but it does seem to finally have a reason for me to actually use the site. If you have felt like that too, explore and you might have your mind changed like I did.

Facebook, I Don't Play Video Games

   Facebook wants me to play a game. They really do. Any game. They keep suggesting games for me to play even though I click them off the screen, they keep coming back like whack-a-moles.
   I don't like to play video games, they are really repetitive. Even though plenty of them have all kinds of side adventures to engage in to keep you playing longer, they are just basically the same few storylines endlessly recycled that all boil down to quest stories. And I don't like quest stories (never read LOTR, never will; took everything in me to see the movies; did it because of all the great reviews; they were right; not reading it, ever).
   What is it about the games? Do they get money for suggesting them? Are they really ads? Do people just spend a lot of time playing games on Facebook and this is always a newbie suggestion?
   Outside of searching for friends endlessly, there isn't that much actually on Facebook, it's all apps. And if you don't add some apps, and you don't have friends right away, there is nothing to do on Facebook.
   Except maybe to play a game. Hmm.

Google: You May Want Me to Have It All, But I Don't Want All of It

   I am fairly pleased with the Google products I have been using so far. But I have one big complaint: I can't opt out of the products that I don't want. All of these products became activated when I clicked on the name on the tool bar (or More setting). My dashboard is filled with stuff I don't need: calendar, play, talk, voice, etc. I had clicked on these hoping to get some introductory information before signing up for the product. Instead, I have a bunch of useless (to me) products that I can't disconnect. It is really annoying because I had to go in and change each of the individual settings on some of these to privatize them because, as usual, Google's default settings are always public. That's fine if you are in sharing mood (like Google+), but not so fine if you you don't care to share. I stopped clicking a little too late, but my lesson is learned: Google the info before you click.

   BTW: if anyone knows how to get rid of unwanted add-ons, I would appreciate the help, especially with the calendar.