Google+ Tips

Google giving another try to control the boom of facebook in specific and the other social media network in general, lets analyse Google Plus a Google new social network web app for people around the globe.

Google+ is on its way to charm people and many of the Facebook users are already making their minds to take a shift, so it is just matter of time, but again these are somehow pre-mature thoughts, so we will have to wait and see the impact.

Frankly speaking, we had to spend sizable amount of time to get familiar with Google+, we thought of saving you from the effort. So let’s start with Google+ and here you will get some basic useful tips if you are just joining Google+ or are still wondering what to do here?
Getting Started

There has been much hype about how and from where to get Google+ invitations. People started writing tutorials on how to invite someone on Google+, but Google has resolved the issue now and you do not need to end up pasting your email address here and there to ask for an invite.

Registrations on Google+ are now open and you can sign up without any invite. Simply visit http://google.com/+/ and register yourself.
Welcome to Google+

If you have ever used any of Google’s services (Gmail, Google Profile, Blogger, etc.), then there are chances that Google+will detect more than 50 percent of your bio – to fill your profile. Don’t worry, your privacy settings will not be disturbed. For instance, you can link your Picasa account with Google+ while maintaining the same privacy settings as they were with your Picasa account.

So it’s time now to upload your profile picture and write something about you.
Build Your Circles

Next thing that you should do is, build up your circles and invite others. But to know what really circles are, read below:
Circles are different set of groups, or lists with different permissions. You can add your contacts in these circles to make sure that you don’t share your information with those who shouldn’t see them.
You will get updates from contacts that you have added in your circle. Just like twitter, you start getting updates from those whom you follow
Contacts in your circle will not get your updates, though they will be invited – but they can deny any incoming requests.

By default Google offers following circles to you, of course you can create more with ease
Friends
Family
Acquaintances
Following

You can simply mouse over them to read what kind of circle it is and sharing settings.


Adding Contacts to Circles:
Click circle button (right on top middle – or where the red arrow is in above image)
Go to "Find and Invite" tab
Here you will be suggested with contacts that you may want to add in your circles, drag and drop them in below circles… simple as that
Note: Suggestions will be those contacts that you recently interacted with on Gmail
Want to add someone who is not in suggestions: There’s a button “Add a new Person”, click on it – type email address and you are done.

So you are almost done with basic settings and this is the time to go out and say Here I am!
Posts and Stream

You must be familiar with wall posts on Facebook, here Google calls it stream. And for me, the most loveable feature of Google+ is to get stream from specific circle.

• Select stream from any of your circle and updates from only those will be shown from the circle
• You can Share a post from your stream, comment on it +1 it (kind of liking a post)
• You can post an update, using the box given on top of stream – exactly like facebook has;
• Post any thing you feel like, you can add videos, pictures, links and so on
• You can edit posts later on, delete them, mute them and so on
• You can select circles or contacts that you want your post to be shared with.
• You can disable resharing and/or commenting

Hangouts

Hangouts is the coolest feature of Google Plus, it will let you start a video conversation with as many friends of yours as you like.

Simply click the “Hangout” button available on right sidebar or visit this link: plus.google.com/hangouts

You’ll be taken to a "green room" where you can select circles or individuals to add in your room (video chat).
Sparks = Interests and Likes

Visit the Sparks menu from left sidebar and you will find featured interests. Don’t worry, you are not bound to like them. Search your interests and while adding them, Google+ will give you content suggestions that you can share on your wall, stream in fact.

Once again Google+ allows you here to set which circles you want to share with and it works the same way as described for the post.
Turning Off Email Alerts

By default, Google+ will email you for every post, comment, +1 or anything that happens and is related to you.

This may irritate you – so simply visit Google+ settings from the Options menu which you can find at the extreme right of black bar – codenamed the “Sandbar”, you must have noticed it appearing from few days.

Manage Your Friends Circle

Manage your circle / group of friends on Facebook is becoming easier.

A new site called Circle Hack uses a drag-and-drop format similar to Circles on Google+ that lets you organize your Facebook friends into lists quickly and easily. Four Facebook engineers built the site, though it is not an official Facebook product, according to TechCrunch.

The new site does a pretty fair imitation of the Google+ Circles feature. Like Circles, the page is divided into two parts. Up top are all your Facebook friends represented by their name and profile picture on a contact card. Below your friends is the area where you create new circles. Each section has its own scroll bar and you can even resize each section by clicking on the dividing line between the two areas.

Here's how you get started.

Log in to your Facebook account and authorize the site just like you would any other Facebook application. Then just start dragging your friends into the circles below. You can organize people individually or you can select multiple people at once. Circle Hack even includes a similar paperclip graphic to Google+ that shows how many people you're dragging into the current circle.

Once you have a circle organized click on the "Create list" link that appears in the center of your new circle to name it. After that, you're done and the next time you open Facebook, you'll see the newly created list as an option in the "Friends" section and in your privacy settings.

There are some limitations you should know about.

Circle Hack does not let you delete a friend list and you cannot remove someone from a list once you've added them. To do that you'll have to open Facebook and edit your new lists there.

The official way to organize your Facebook friends into smaller lists is a little bit harder to use than Circle Hack. You have to click the "Friends" icon in the left hand column of your Facebook home page. Then click on "Manage Friend List" and then on the next page click on "Create a List." In the next pop-up window, you start clicking on your friends' names to add them to your new list.

Whether you use Facebook's official friends lists method or Circle Hack, to get them to actually be useful you have to either customize your privacy settings or your privacy controls for each individual post. This part Circle Hack can't help you with.

Let's say you wanted to restrict a post so that only your new Facebook friends list could see it. To start, you have to click on the lock icon below your News Feed's text entry box and select "Custom" from the drop down menu. In the next pop-up window you have two choices: "Make this visible to" and "Hide this from." If you want to share something with only your specific list then you'd select "Specific people" under the "Make this visible to" section and then type in the name of your new list and hit "Save Setting." This is a one-time change, but if you plan to only share with a specific list or a specific set of lists you can check the "Make this my default setting" box in the lower left corner.

The other way to manage your friend lists is to click on "Account" in the upper right corner of your Facebook home page and select "Privacy Settings." Then click on "Customize settings" and in the next window you can select a variety of share options for things such as your wall posts, check ins, photos, email address and so on. You manage these settings pretty much the same way as a wall post. Just click on the drop-down menu, select "Customize" and in the next window decide on the people you want to make this content visible to and the people you want to hide it from.

Facebook's friends lists aren't as easy to use as Google+'s Circles, but Circle Hack takes a little bit of the pain out of organizing your Facebook friends. Give it a try, but just remember Circle Hack appears to be more of a fun application than an industrial-strength Facebook tool.