Maybe you can expand the theme to include interesting things folks are doing at home (in addition to cooking). You could also pull in interesting posts automatically from the social sites like twitter and instagram. Looking forward to more updates!
Yes, a description on why every permission is required should go a long way in helping the user make an intelligent decision.
I will add those prominently on the Chrome Webstore Installation page (and maybe the homepage).
I agree, with the iOS App Store, one doesn't have to worry about it as much because you know that all apps go through a review process and wouldn't be approved if they were doing something terrible.
One of the main ideas for future direction is to integrate it more with existing services for Todos (RememberTheMilk, etc.), Notes (Evernote, etc.), instead of rebuilding those tools.
So, imagine having an Evernote notebook for a project, and managing all notes from it on the homepage. That way your information is still in the cloud, in the service of your choice, but accessible within the context of a project.
Yes, it does depend how one is using Google+. I primarily use it to interact with small groups of friends and family who are using Google+ (which is not a lot), which might be very different from how you use it.
Also, these views are all mine, what triggered them was the annoyances I came across as I was trying to simplify the Google+ interface for my mom. I find Google+ great for sharing links, photos and doing hangouts and I definitely don't know of a better or simpler solution for private sharing among groups of people. Like you said, it is really simple to share.
I do feel strongly about letting users easily opt out of getting too much information. If I want to see what's trending, I can visit the Explore tab. Like the left navigation, maybe it makes sense to let you hide stuff on the right sidebar as well.
My main annoyance though is with the persistent adverts (the banners you see on Explore, Hangout and Photos pages). And the "in your face" banner that you cannot get rid of, if you have less than 10 people in Circles. The only way is to add strangers to your Circles to get rid of it. Would it be too bad to have a "X" icon on the top right to get rid of these?
To clarify, almost all the usability issues mentioned in the article are the ones I face myself too. The title is a bit misleading, it's just what prompted me to write it.
I agree that you can't have every product fit every person, but isn't one of the primary selling points of Google+ that "you can have private conversations with small groups of family and friends". I would personally think the features and UX should be designed keeping that in mind.
Even saying so, a lot of the points I say there are potential usability issues for everyone (at least for me they are). For example, the big banner ads for mobile apps and Hangouts.
I agree, the title is a bit misleading. By "setup", I meant creating an account and simplifying the user interface, and explaining to my mom how to start hangouts, share photos, etc.
The up side: You can immediately use it with any of your sites. No setting up required.
The down side: It works on top of your existing CSS and you'll still need to copy/paste the CSS into your live version.
