Months before the rumors about Google Circles started making the rounds, it occurred to me there was something missing from the social networking landscape. For lack of a better term, I began referring to it as the social private network.

As a professional who also has a private life, the biggest issue I have with sites like Facebook and Twitter is that they don’t allow me to compartmentalize my relationships the way I do in real life. Not only do my professional friends not care that I adopted an ugly duckling in Farmville, I don’t particularly want them to know how I waste my time, nor do I want to clutter up their timeline with my gaming activities.Continue reading→