Friends Online

If Second Life really wants to get into the Social Networking game, I suggest they look a bit more closely at the Google+ model of using Circles to help Residents keep track of our Friends list. I don't use Google+, mind you, as what few people I do associate with in Real Life really aren't computer users. Most don't even have mobile phones. And try to get any doctor's office to use email for anything — you might as well pound your head on a wall.

But at any given time there are about 20 people of about 170 from my Friends list in Second Life online at any given time. The word "Friends" is a euphemism, of course, for "People I need to keep in contact with for one reason or another." Like anyone, I guess, some people really are friends, others are more like family, and the rest filter into other mentally organized groups. But looking at my Friends list, there are only two groups: Online and Offline.

What I'd like to see first is to rename the list as "Contacts." Then some organization, if not like the Google+ Circles, is at least some way to group my contacts by type.