Nonsequitorial

I was at dinner last night and an interesting thing happened.  The restaurant was called “Hash House A Go-Go” (in the Gold Coast) and it was awesome.

My girlfriend Marissa ordered a sandwich that came with a side of potatoes. As the waitress put the plate down, she noticed a problem. “I’m so sorry, there was supposed to be pesto sauce on your side of potatoes – want me to take it back?” she asked. “No, it’s totally fine,” Marissa replied, and we began our meal.

Five minutes later, a different waitress stopped by the table and said “I heard your potatoes came without sauce, would you like me to take them back to the chef?” Again, Marissa said, “they’re really delicious anyway, there’s no need to bother the chef with it.”

Another five minute passed and the waitress came back again. She put down a plate with a fresh side of potatoes. “The chef insisted that you try it with the sauce,” she said, smiling.

The Chef had made a mistake, but his customer hadn’t minded. The food was delicious anyway. But the chef wasn’t satisfied because his customer didn’t get the experience he had intended. He took pride in what he was doing and he knew that with the sauce, the potatoes would be freaking awesome.

I was on Gmail today and noticed this button:

Which button, you ask? Great question, Mom*.  Because there are so many buttons and calls to action on this page.  This button:

Which one? You still can't tell? The one in between the 1 and my face. the "+ Share" button. I wonder how many people click on this and it made me think...Just because there's a button on the page doesn't mean I'm in the mindset to click on it. Sure, it's not bright red like the "1" next to it. But still, how many times are you in Gmail and thinking "you know, I really want to share something publicly on Google+ right now." It's an interesting question and I think the answer could change over time. But compare it to this:

Sure there are lots to do on this page, I can like stuff and run ads and find new friends, but right in the middle of the thing it's asking me "What's on your mind?"

Now, of course one of Facebook's core functions at this point is to get people to share with each other to keep the newsfeed populated, so it makes sense that almost every single call to action on this page aims to meet that goal. Like = put it in my friends' newsfeed; Comment = put in my friends' newsfeed; Share = put it in my friends' newsfeed. 

Email is almost definitionally intended to be private. The expectation is that it's as private as a phone call or even a conference call (leave aside for a second the notion that it's also forwardable, so the expectation of privacy isn't actually the same as a phone call). The opposite of an email is a billboard. It's a speech. It's twitter.

My observation is this -- people are in a very specific mindset when checking their email. It's a mindset of sharing with a very small group of people, with the expectation that it's going to be mostly private. There is probably a place for Google+ integration, but a "Share+" button at the top of my email where the default is for the message to be shared completely publicly is probably not it.

I'd be curious how often that button gets clicked relative to the people who are active on Google+.  My guess is that while in their private email, most people aren't in the mindset to post something publicly. But maybe I'm weird...What do you think (about the post, not about me being weird...)?