The Pros

I can understand how Google came up with the idea of Circles for its social network. It's not revolutionary--it's just how people naturally compartmentalize life anyway. I have family, friends, old friends from high school or college, co-workers, former co-workers, contacts with similar music interests who I've never even met in real life, etc.. It is natural to segregate contacts from different facets of my life into their own groups.

When I write a post on Google+, I have to choose which Circles that information will be shared with. I can choose just one Circle, or multiple Circles. I can also choose to share with all of my Circles, or my extended Circles--which includes everyone in my Circles, plus everyone those contacts have in their Circles, or I can just make the post Public which means everyone who has me in a Circle will see it.

When it comes to sharing information, some things I might want to share with my family and close friends might be too personal for groups like "people online with similar music interests who I've never met in real life." It is also possible that I might want to share the same information, but at different levels depending on the Circles.

For example, explaining that I won't be going in to work Monday can have very different meanings depending on the Circle. I might want to let my "co-workers" Circle know that I'm not feeling very well and won't make it in, and then let my "friends" Circle know that I'll meet them at the beach, and I'm bringing the beer.