Why Google+ will be something new

[Commentary] The innovative thing in Google+ is the following: Some of the edges are directed, and some are undirected. This mixture of directed and undirected links will govern the evolving structure of Google+. Twitter allows directed links only in one direction. (If I follow you, the information flows from you to me.) But Google+ allows directed edges in either direction. By adding you on Google+, I can either push information to you, by sharing things with you, or I can pull information from you (like following on Twitter), by adding you to what Google+ calls “incoming”.
[Kakaes is a Bernard L. Schwartz fellow at the New America Foundation]