Cognitive dissonance; or, "Friending" on G+

If you use Google+, perhaps you've noticed that when someone adds you, it now doesn't ask whether you want to +Add or +Circle (or whatever the action used to be called) them back, but to +Friend them. Like this is Facebook or something.

Now, it would be one thing if I were simply snarking and whining about window-dressing, and it didn't matter whether Google uses +Add or +Friend to describe this action.  The problem is that, aside from the fact that after clicking +Friend, you're immediately asked whether the Noun (is a person, place, or thing) is a friend, or family, or acquaintance, or whatever, the act of Friending on FB is quite different from the act of "Friending" on G+.  

• On FB, Friending is a symmetric, two-way act. I send a Friend request to you, which you must accept before our posts show up on each other's walls.
• On G+, "Friending" is an asymmetric act.  I add you to a circle, and your public posts appear in my stream, but you can ignore me completely.  

Written like that, it sounds like a minor difference, but it's actually important and quite powerful**.  Conflating these very different actions by using the same term that FB uses actually makes it harder (IMO) for people to switch from FB to G+, because people have expectations about what it means to "Friend" someone, and if an action using the same term doesn't behave the same way, that will send them scurrying back to FB.

I guess I'll just have to be content for the fleeting moment that the e-mail notifying you that someone has added you to their circles still asks if you want to add them to yours...

** Okay, I was going to link to a page that clearly explains why this difference is important and powerful, but all I can find are pages from two years ago that aren't quite what I'm looking for.  Thought there would be more easily findable recent and relevant discussion.