Who Are My Gmail Contacts?

Who Are My Gmail Contacts?

你的Gmail通讯录里都是谁？

Google has an awkward way of dealing with contacts in its communication apps. In Gmail, your contact list includes all the people you've ever replied, but you can also add other contacts manually.
oogle在他的通讯工具里处理联系人的方式不怎么高明。在Gmail里你的通讯录会包括所有你曾回复过的邮件地址，你还可以手工添加一些别的联系人。
"Email addresses are automatically added to your Contacts list each time you use the Reply, Reply to all, or Forward functions to send messages to addresses not previously stored in your Contacts list," according to the help center. While this should save you some time and effort, your contact list will include a lot of people you wouldn't have normally added. For example, if somebody sends me a tip for this blog and I reply to thank him, my contact list includes that person. Gmail doesn't have an option to turn off this feature, so all you can do is to either ignore your contact list or create a group that contains only your real contacts.
Gmail帮助里解释说，所有你曾回复过的，全部回复的或者是转发过的新的邮件地址都会自动添加到你的通讯录里。在节约你手动添加联系人的同时你的通讯录里也会无端冒出许多一般来说不会添加的联系人。比如有人发邮件告诉我这篇Blog涉及到的小技巧，我回复说谢谢他的邮件地址就会出现在我的通讯录里。Gmail没有关掉这一功能的选项，你能做的要么是无视那些联系人的存在，要么创建以小组，然后把你的真正的联系人放进去。
By default, if your conversation with someone includes more than 2-3 replies, that person is automatically added to your list of Google Talk friends. To chat with someone you normally need to ask for permission, but this feature bypasses the annoying question because Google assumes you really know that person. Fortunately, you can disable it in Gmail's settings and Google Talk, but not many people will do this. "If there are other Gmail users whom you frequently email, you'll be able to chat and see each other online without having to send an invitation. Gmail automatically determines which contacts you'll be able to talk to without having to invite each other." (Gmail help center)
默认情况下如果你和一个人聊上两三句，那个人就会自动添加到你的gtalk联系人里。要和一个人聊天一般都要先得到许可，但是这一功能绕过了这个烦人的问题因为google认为你和那个人认识的。所幸的是在gmail的设置里你可以关掉这一功能，但是没有多少人真的会去做。如果你经常发邮件给另一个gmail用户你就可以和那个人聊天，并且在gtalk里相互看到对方的状态，根本就用不着邀请。（Gmail帮助）
So the rules are simple:
这样看来其中的规则很简单
Rule #1:

规则#1

if you reply to someone's email, that person is added to your Gmail contact list.
(Error #1: you may not know that person)
如果你回复一个人的邮件，那个人就会添加到你的Gmail通讯录里。

（错误#1：你可能不认识那个人）

Rule #2 (opt-out):

规则#2（选择退出）

if you reply to someone's messages more than 2-3 times, that person is added to the list of Google Talk friends.
(Error #2: see error #1. Also that person may not be your friend.)
如果你回复一个人的信息超过三次，那个人就会添加到你的gtalk好友里。

（错误#2：参照错误#1：那个人可能不是你的朋友）

So it's quite likely that your Gmail contact list and Google Talk friends list include people you don't know. Now that we have these two lists (obviously, Google Talk friends are also Gmail contacts), you may wonder where you could use them.
这样一来你的Gmail通讯录和Gtalk好友里面会出现不少你根本就不认识的人。现在我们有这样两个通讯录（很显然Gtalk的好友名单和Gmail的通讯录是一样的），你可能在想在什么地方可以用到这些通讯录。
In Google Shared Stuff, a rather obscure social bookmarking site, all the web pages you bookmark are public, but there's also a page with "stuff from people you know". That page shows the most recent bookmarks from your Gmail contacts, but many of these contacts are people I don't know.
在google共享上，一款甚是暧昧的社交型书签网站，你收藏的所有网页都会公开，同时还有一个单独的页面放你认识的人的共享，但是其中很多人我根本就不认识。
Google Reader added a feature that shows shared items from your Google Talk friends. Here's how it was introduced:

Google Reader添加的一项新的功能可以显示Gtalk好友贡献的内容。这里是当时的介绍：

One of my favorite uses for Reader is to share interesting stuff with my friends. I click "Share" whenever I find an interesting item, be it hilarious or serious. This way, all my friends can subscribe to my shared items (and I to theirs), and we can easily see if a friend has found something interesting. This can be inconvenient, as I have to distribute my shared items link to my friends and vice-versa. So, we've linked up Reader with Google Talk (also known as chat in Gmail) to make your shared items visible to your friends from Google Talk.
我最喜欢使用Reader和朋友们共享好玩的帖子。发现了好玩的，无论是搞笑的还是严肃的，就点击一下共享。这样我的朋友就可以订阅我共享的内容（我也可以订阅他们的共享），并且很容易的了解到是不是有人发现了好玩的东东。不方便的是我不得不把我的共享地址一个个的发给他们，他们也要这样发给我。因此我们就把Reader和Gtalk联系起来（就是在Gmail中可以聊天的东东），你的朋友的Gtalk里就可以看到你在Reader里共享出来的帖子。

Except that, according to the rule #2, my Google Talk friends aren't necessarily my friends.
除此之外，根据第二条条件，我的Gtalk好友不一定真的是我的朋友。
Google will probably continue to use your contact list for other services, so at some point your Gmail contacts or Google Talk friends might see your public documents, photo albums, notebooks, personalized maps, blog posts. All of these public actions dynamically generate a news feed (the way you know it from Facebook) and your contacts should be entitled to find things about you. The main problem is that your contact list has been generated automatically and has little to do with you. Those people aren't necessarily your friends, your family, your co-workers, they're just some people you happened to email at some point.
Google可能还会把你的通讯录用在别的一些服务上，这样你的Gmail联系人或者说你的Gtalk好友可能会看到你公开的文件，相册，笔记本，个人定制的地图，博客。所有这些行为加在一起又会形成一个动态的新闻种子（就是你看到的Facebook上的样子），你的联系人就有权找到你。主要的问题是你的通讯录是自动生成的，和你没有多大的关系。这些人不一定是你的好友，你的家人，你的同事，他们只是你碰巧发过邮件的陌生人。
Before using theses random lists of people to broadcast information about you, Google should clearly define their purpose and let you manage them. The problem with creating a social layer over Google's web apps is that Google is not a social network and your contacts are not your friends and not even people you know.
Google在利用这些随机生成的通讯录把你广播出去之前应该清晰的界定他们的用途，并且允许你来管理。在Google的在线工具之上创建一个社交层存在的问题是Google不是一个社交型的网站，你的联系人也不是你的好友你甚至根本就不认识。