Why I’ve deleted the Google+ app from my phone

I have been a little uneasy with the changes to Google accounts and particularly the way photos get shared when you post them in Google+. I was quiet a fan of Picasa and Picasa Web Albums but now I am less so and in fact worried enough not to post family photos on using Google+ any more. For a while I just stepped back and watched what was happening. Well very little has happened and a couple of the features I had liked have tarnished a little (at least for me). It is now time to reassess. So reluctantly I am deleting my Google+ app from my phone and whilst I will keep my Google+ account I doubt I will be using it to post photos much any more.

1. I never really connected with the “phenomenal growth” photo community on Google+, despite joining a number of great photographic circles. What I actually saw was a lot of follow the leader copy cat stuff. There were some innovative and different things but they where quickly everywhere, hundreds of them with thousands of comments like “wow” and “great shot” this quickly dulled the very reason to even look, it was just always more of the same. Of course some of the photographers, like +Thomas Hawk, and +Trey Radcliffe just to mention a couple, are still great, producing great work, I just think they have gotten lost in the “look at me” "wanna bees” that post incessantly.
2. The way you can control how your photos are shared has changed, in Picasa Web you had several options (not unlike flickr) for family and friends as well as sharing by individual emails invitations. Under the Google+ changes you might be surprised to find out that as soon as you share on Google+, that goes to your home page AND the home page of anyone in the circles you share with. Their friends will be able to read (and repost links to) your photos. This is really just the same as the problem as in facebook that has caught out so many celebrities (who have discovered to late that the gossip mags have just publish some private and perhaps less than flattering snaps just meant for their friends).
3. The Google+ View (aka lightbox), which is a very nice clean format, actually doesn’t have details of how you wish to licence your photo (whereas Picasa Web did). Not being able to display a creative commons licence is a spoiler for me and I have posted very few photos to be share publically on Google+ since I realised this.
4. Instant Upload, which seemed to be a very nice feature and used to work well on my phone no longer worked in the updated, oversized and blotted Google+ app (15,45MB), that auto update delivered itself to me one night. Checking the fine print I have found that instant upload no longer works for android version 2.1 (which my Telstra wildfire is locked to).  I can not see anyway to go back a version on the app, so this was really the deal breaker.