"The words private, shared and public have been captured and warped over the past 10 years or so. Private is often a word used for sharing between you and others. Shared is often used as a synonym for Public. But what they really mean is the following: Private - just for you (not for any other person - like an EverNote post) Shared - Between you and one or more named others (like email or sms). Public - Everybody can see, even strangers (like Twitter or Facebook or G+ with constraints switched off). We all want to be able to do all 3 some of the time. just.me is implemented this way." - Keith Teare