You can now Email any Google+ User

As of January 9th you can now email any Google+ user you want as long as you have a Gmail account. The announcement of the new Gmail default setting included this message:

"Your email address isn't visible to a Google+ connection unless you send that person an email, and likewise, that person's email address isn't visible to you unless they send you an email."

This is good news for the aggressive marketer who would like to reach out to those within their Google+ circles directly via email. Maybe you've always wanted to share your business ideas with someone and have never had a chance to land directly in their inbox before this?!

If that's the case then it would be better to move sooner rather than later before it's abused by too many people or the feature is removed completely due to attacks by consumer privacy groups. Consumer Watchdog filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission claiming that this new feature violates the "Buzz" Consent Agreement. Consumer Watchdog advocates write, "This is an obvious invasion of a person's privacy and a delight for potential stalkers."

If you'd like to opt-out of this setting, it's easy to do within your Gmail account's Settings > General tab: