Wow! I thought this was really insightful. I particularly like Paul's distinction of a new type of connection beyond strong & weak; temporary connections.

What's also interesting is that he left both Google and Facebook.

http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=2547410

That was worth following all the way through - very insightful.

I am wondering if that research was what drove Google+. Google+ is still something that does not feel natural to me - way too complicated - circles and groups and interests as a gigantic Venn diagram - although I naturally segment my network in the real world, I have not found a good metaphor for this in the online space - Right now, I achieve this by keeping some folks on LinkedIn, other folks on Twitter and others on Facebook. Skype and WhatsApp keep people separated in chat. And 5 different email accounts partition everyone nicely there. But perhaps I'm an outlier.