If you’re already struggling to maintain Inbox Zero, Google just made it a whole lot harder for you.
In their never ending quest to make Google+ a Thing, Google has made further steps into integrating your least visited social network into your main inbox.
In an announcement on Thursday, Google declared that anyone on Google+ will be able to send you an e-mail – without owning that vital piece of information that is your e-mail address.
Google gave the change a positive spin in its blog post making the announcement (“Have you ever started typing an email to someone only to realize halfway through the draft that you haven’t actually exchanged email addresses?” uuuummmmmm….. no?) but once the news spread so did the annoyance. The changes did not go down well on the social networks this morning, with hoards of Twitter users threatening to shut down their Gmail accounts entirely. The issue for many, as usual with Google related updates, was with the lack of privacy.
Messages can now be sent straight into your inbox “via Google+”, which essentially means that anyone with a G+ account can now flood your meticulously clean virtual postbox with junk.
But before you grab your cyber pitchfork and take to Twitter, there is an easy way to opt out of getting messages from your ‘acquaintances’ and other Google+ users, with a new Gmail setting as shown on the blog.
The update is being rolled out over the next couple of days, so you may not be able to find this option just yet, but if you’re not keen on getting spammed by strangers, keep an eye out for it.
