Google plus Blog

10 Tips And Tricks For Better Google+ Brand Pages

2011-12-12T12:35:00.000-08:00

10 Tips And Tricks For Better Google+ Brand Pages

Start Using Your Own Brand Page

Once the brand page is created, go to your Google+ profile to access it. The home page of your profile displays your name and profile pic.

There is a drop down menu below this. Click on this menu and access your page.

Add Your Followers to Your Circles

A person cannot be added to the circles of your brand page if your page has not been added to his circles.

If you want to see the people who have added you, go to ‘Circles’. Click “People who’ve added you”. These people can now be added to specific circles.

Your Google+ Brand Page URL

When you create a brand page on Google+, you are given a URL. In case you want it again, go to the homepage of your brand.

Check out the ‘Get Started’ button below your name. Click on it. An admin info page is displayed. Search for ‘Tell the world’ category. The URL is located under it.

Remove Tabs Which Are Not Required

Google+ pages have less customization options. But you have the option to remove the unwanted tabs. In case the images and videos are not significant to your page and you do not want these to be displayed, you can do by following a very easy process.

Simply go to the profile page. Click on ‘Edit Profile’. Select either ‘Videos’ or ‘Photos’ and click on it. You have the option the hide either one of them or both.

Get Your Site Connected to Google+

Many G+ buttons and an easy-to-use code is offered by Google. These can be used to connect your website to Google+. You can also access Google Direct Connect through your website.

Go to the home page. Check out ‘Get Started’ below your name. You will find the buttons and code there.

Lock Your Posts From Further Sharing

Google+ gives you an option to lock your posts so that nobody can share these further. These can be locked within a specific circle.

When your post is ready to be shared, check out the arrow below the icons on its right side. You can lock your posts here. You must note that people can still copy your post.

Also Read

10 Tips And Tricks For New Users in Google +
Google+ Allows You To Share Maps
15 Google+ Sites And Services For Power Users
Google Plus Now Let You Share Members In Your Circles
Google + Lets Users Decide Who Can Notify Them

Hide The Count Of Your Followers

If you are in the initial stage of promoting your brand on Google+, your follower count will be quite less.

You have the option to hide this count. Go to home page. Click on “Change who is visible here”. You can select the option to hide your follower count.

Add Important Links

It is better to add useful links to the ‘About’ page. Go to your ‘About’ page. Click ‘Edit Profile’.

Click on ‘Recommended Links’. Various edit options will be listed.

Make Use Of The Circles

Circles are a very important component of Google+. You must use them. You can group your followers by interests, locations and other categories.

A message can be written for every circle in a particular style. People in your circles will see the relevant content specifically written for them. You can create more circles from ‘Circles’ page.

Get Creative With Scrapbook Photos

Photos can be displayed on your page. Photos enhance the visual appearance of your brand page. These photos are called ‘Scrapbook photos’.

Get creative with these photos and make your page attractive.

Google+ Youtube Connection

2011-10-13T06:15:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wanted to go to Youtube, and see a list of videos people have shared with you on Google+? Well, Google just rolled out this capability. It’s very simple to set up. All you need to do is go to your YouTube settings, and connect your Google+ account to your account on Youtube. Once this is done, all newvideos that are shared with you on Google+ will appear on your Youtube homepage, as sort of a stream under “Recommend Videos”. It is important to note that initially after adding your account to Youtube, videos may not appear for a while until new videos are shared with you. Here is a look at the new homepage setup:

Top Scientists and Science Writers To Follow In Google Plus

2011-08-13T09:09:00.000-07:00

Top Scientists and Science Writers To Follow In Google Plus
+Philip Plait Astronomer
+PZ Myers Biologist
+Maggie Koerth-Baker Science editor boingboing.net
+Fraser Cain Publisher Of University today
+Nikolay Koldunov Arctic Oceanography
+Sean Carroll Physicist at Caltech. Master of time and space.
+Adrian West Astronomer
+Pamela Gay Astronomer
+Nicole Gugliucci Noisy astronomer
+Emily Lakdawalla Planetary Society blogger, space writer
+John Baez Mathematician and physicist
+Joerg Heber  Physicist,Science writer
+Rebecca Watson Skepchick
+Gail Barnes Physicist
+Brad Snowder Astroholic
+Diogo Melo  Physicist, Writer, Philosopher
+Andrew Jones Editor at Black Gate magazine
+Ian O'Neill Space Producer for Discovery News
+Ray Sanders Sci-Fi geek, astronomer

Google+ iPhone app v 1.0.2.1966

2011-08-08T09:55:00.000-07:00

a new version of our Google+ iPhone app (v 1.0.2.1966) will be rolling out in the Appstore over the next few hours. Get it hot off the presses from: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google/id447119634?mt=8

The latest and greatest updates to the Google+ iOS app, including support for iPod Touch & iPad, better +mention support, hide 1:1 Huddles, and much more!

What's New in Version 1.0.2.1966
- Huddle settings
- Aggregated circle add notifications
- iPod touch & iPad support
- Performance and stability improvements

The app takes a few hours to roll out. So if you are having issues, check the version number (go to Homescreen, tap on gears icon) and ensure it is v1.0.2.1966.

4 Reasons Google+ Brand Pages Will Be Better Than Facebook’s

2011-08-08T06:52:00.000-07:00

Via Mashable,In a month or two, Google+ will launch its highly anticipated brand pages. Here are four reasons why marketers are right to be excited and why Google+ brand pages will provide a better branded experience than Facebook.

1. Better Search Opportunites

A major challenge with driving paid search ads to a Facebook page is that the Facebook.com domain generates a lower click-through rate (CTR), most likely due to people finding the domain irrelevant to their query. The low CTR makes for a low quality score in Google’s auction-model, which typically increases cost per click for paid search ads driving to Facebook versus a unique brand domain. The loss in cost efficiency of driving to a Facebook page has been an ongoing struggle for advertisers, particularly on Google, which has over 60% of the search market.

It would be crazy for search giant Google not to have search benefits for Google+ brand pages, whether it is a “certified check mark” callout (like on Twitter), a colored box around the listing, or possibly page-rank priority. Search benefits would likely be the strongest reason for brands to adopt a Google+ brand page. The only flaw in this theory is that giving brand pages’ extra benefits in search could raise the specter of anti-trust action and legal challenges.

2. More Customization

Facebook ad types are limited to just ads, sometimes with a video or poll, allowing for few branding or creative opportunities. Looking at the design of Google+ personal pages, I predict the two skyscraper-sized white spaces on each side of the profile will be opportunities for custom skinning of your brand page and for display or rich media ads.

Google+ users are probably cursing me for suggesting the placement of ads on the currently clean design of Google+, but I am speaking specifically about allowing brands to advertise and skin their own pages as seen on branded YouTube channels such as Old Spice and Miracle Whip. These are great examples of how Google+ brand pages can deliver stronger brand experiences and help brands raise awareness of special promotions, as well as letting them drive qualified traffic to pages outside of Google+.

I would not be surprised if advertising opportunities were immediately available after the launch of Google+ brand pages, since Google is fully prepared to support it with its Google Display Network, AdWords and DoubleClick advertising products.

3. Better Analytics

People who have used Google Analytics know how detailed the data is, including metrics like time spent on page, top content, referring sites and geographic information. It seems inevitable for Google to integrate Google Analytics into Google+ brand pages, so that brands can gain valuable insights into who their fans are, what content their fans are consuming, and where they are coming from.

All this data will guide brands in the prioritization, organization and creation of content for their page, which will lead to an improved experience that better suits fans’ interests and needs. More importantly, Google Analytics and DoubleClick reporting products will let advertisers tie paid media placements to page interaction, and help to optimize and maximize the value of media spend.

4. Google Can Learn from Facebook

Facebook pioneered one-on-one connections between a brand and its fans through social networking, and will continue to be valuable for inherently social brands like musicians and celebrities. But for less social industries such as insurance, health and, say, paper towels, Google+ provides a platform that is open to conversation and focuses on providing branded content and valuable information in one place.

Facebook’s successes and missteps offer invaluable lessons, giving Google second-mover advantage in creating a brand page based on brands’ need for more customization, a hub to aggregate content across the web, strong search presence and user-engagement data. However, if Google+ brand pages turn out to be a replica of Facebook’s, the battle could be over before it’s begun.

Inviting To Google Plus Got A lot Easier

2011-08-07T06:52:00.000-07:00

Inviting your friends to Google+ just got a lot easier, thanks to a subtle change that Google+ has rolled out to its users.

The update gives you the ability to share Google+ invites by simply sharing a link. By sharing your unique link with your friends, up to 150 of them can instantly sign up for Google’s social network. The search giant still offers inviting friends via email as an option.

The update was announced earlier this week by Google+ engineer Balaji Srinivasan. “Since we’re still in field trial, we’re limiting sign-ups from these links to 150 per person for now,” Srinivasan noted in his Google+ post.

According To Balaji Srinivasan
We’ve heard that you want to invite your friends, but sometimes you don't know their email addresses... or sometimes its not easy to find it.
To address this, we’ll be rolling out a new feature over the next few days that lets you invite others simply by using a link.

When you click the “invite friends” button on the right-hand side of the page, you’ll find a new link that you can IM to friends or post on the web.
Since we're still in field trial, we're limiting sign-ups from these links to 150 per person for now. We hope you'll like this easy way to bring your friends onto Google+. Thanks and keep the feedback coming!

How to make good use of Google+’s Circles

2011-08-07T00:15:00.000-07:00

I was going to write more about the nuts and bolts ofGoogle+, but that’s changing so fast that I’ve decided to hold off on that for now. Instead, I want to share with you what I’ve found out so far about how to make the most from Google+’s circles.

Let me start with the basics. Google circles are a way of organizing the people you choose to follow on Google+. People can add you to their circles, but they’ll only see your posts that you choose to make public, unless you add them to one or more of your circles.

So, for example, if you post “I really like Spotify [the new online music service]” to the public, everyone who has you in one of their circles can see it. If you post it to your “Friends” circle only the people you’ve placed in your Friends circle will be able to read it.

The reverse is also true. Let’s say you really don’t want to see all of great aunt Tillie’s pictures of her prize winning Siamese cats. You just read your Friends circle’ stream of messages instead of your Family circle’s stream.

You’re also in charge of how much other information other people can see about you based on your circle. So, for example, you can set your circles so that only “Friends” and “Family” can see your phone number.

In any case, no one but you knows who’s in your circles or which circles you’ve placed them in. So, you’ll know that your annoying uncle Joe has been placed in the circle “Ugly Relatives,” but no else will.

What all this adds up to is control. Unlike Facebook, where pretty much anyone your friends with can see everything you post, Google+ gives you fine control of who sees what and what you see.

My friend and fellow journalist Mike Elgan, has proposed what I think is a really useful overall way of looking at circles. Elgan’s taxonomy of Google+ circles goes like this:

Instead of saying, “I’m going to write a blog post now,” or “I’m going to send an e-mail” or “I think I’ll tweet something” you simply say what you have to say, then decide who you’re going to say it to.
If you address it to “Public,” it’s a blog post.
If you address it to “Your Circles” it’s a tweet.
If you address it to your “My Customers” Circle it’s a business newsletter.
If you address it to a single person, it can be a letter to your mother.

That’s a darn good start. Now let’s refine it.

If you’re addressing something to the public, it doesn’t have to be a blog post. It can be anything that you think is interesting and you want to share with the world.

Just keep in mind that if you want to keep people reading your words show some sense about what you post. For example, I can already tell you that a lot of Google+ users are already sick and tired of animated GIF graphics-no matter how cute they are.

You can divide up “Your Circles” in several ways. The basics, as I see it are: personal; work; and interests. A personal circle is just what it sounds like: Friends, Close Friends, and Family. You get the idea.

Work circles get more interesting. You could have everyone in your company in a circle; your workgroup in another, the guys you’re plotting to take over the company with another… oh did I say that?

Or, you can have work circles of business partners, press who cover your company, or customers. That’s what the CEO of Seesmic, a social media company, did for Salesforce. This Google+ Salesforce experiment appears to have worked very well indeed.

I can see this working in other ways. Perhaps a customer support circle in addition to your other customer support forums? Or, you could also try Google+’s Hangouts, Google Plus’ built-in video-conferencing, for business meetings or technical support. The last isn’t my idea by the way, It’s Michael Dell’s, CEO of Dell, notion.

Dell, I might add, has floated this idea in his public circle. So, it seems to both myself and Mr. Dell that you can also use business circles for basic marketing research.

Last, but not least, you can set up circles by interests. Want to hang out with your colleagues? Listen to other people who like Shih-Tzu dogs, like yours truly and Bill Gates? Suffer with fellow Chicago Cub fans? Just find like-minded people and set up a circle.

At the moment, Google+ circles aren’t ideal for interest circles. For example, if you were to follow me in a dog-lovers circle, I might only mention pups once every other day or two. It’s my understanding though that Google intends on making it easier to post by topics. I certainly hope they do.

I’m only touching the surface of what can be done with Google Circles here. In part, I’m doing this because I’m still getting the hang of this myself. The other part is that Google is far from done with circles yet. You can expect big changes in circles in the next few weeks.

Four Things Artists Love about Google Plus.

2011-08-06T19:26:00.000-07:00

Lots of artists are posting their work on Google+. We got in touch with a few of them to ask about their experience so far. The response? They love it. As Carsten Bradley, an illustrator in Atlanta, Georgia, writes:

At this point, for artists it is almost like a social networking utopia. We get instant feedback on our work, and visibility far exceeding the capabilities of Facebook and Twitter combined. With the power of circles, we can share works in progress to select individuals and get immediate feedback and critiques without exposing the work publicly. Maybe it doesn't have anything to do with those reasons. Maybe it's just because it's new and shiny. [But the truth of it is] that artists are really coming together here, and it's wonderful.

Daniel Ibanez, an artist and illustrator living in Fort Collins, Colorado, loves it so much he can see it becoming his primary art blog.

Here are a four things artists love about the site:

1. Google+'s image display page looks really classy. Art shines on its transparent black background. Not to pat our own backs, The Atlantic's In Focus blog has set up a camp on the site, and the results are awesome.

2. The traffic has been immense, especially relative to the rather paltry artist's private site usually receives. Eric Orchard, a cartoonist living in Toronto, says that the Google+ traffic is translating into a spike in sales of his work.

3. One reason for the increased traffic: Unlike Facebook, it's the norm on Google+ to follow people who are complete strangers. As Canadian artist Linsay Blondeau puts it, "There's no pretense of being actual 'friends.'" Of course, if you're an artist trying to market your stuff, reaching beyond the people you already know is going to be crucial.

4. Twitter, like Google+, is good for interacting with strangers. But Twitter's not a great way to display art (you can include one photo or a link to your site, but not an album like Google+ allows). Additionally, French artist Benjamin Basso points out that Google+ doesn't have a big spam problem (yet), something that can be a bit of an annoyance on Twitter. And the real humans on Google+ are a chatty bunch, giving artists an unusual opportunity to receive feedback on their work.

How to Display Latest Google Plus Update on Your Blog [wordpress]

2011-08-06T07:43:00.000-07:00

Google Plus is the newest project from Google and it is also the new invitation-only social media kid on the block that wants to knock Facebook off the mountain. If you are currently using Google Plus and want to add the latest Google Plus update on your blog, that’s possible, you can copy and paste the following on your WordPress files.

<?php
 include_once(ABSPATH.WPINC.'/rss.php');
 $googleplus = fetch_feed("http://plusfeed.appspot.com/103329092193061943712"); // Replace 103329092193061943712 by your own ID
 echo '<a href="Here_To_Put_Your_Google_Plus_ID';
 echo $googleplus->items[0]['link']; echo '">';
 echo $googleplus->items[0]['summary'];
 echo '';
?>

P/S: Don’t forget to put your Google+ ID on line 3.

Google vs Microsoft in Android Patent Dispute

2011-08-06T07:37:00.000-07:00

Google and Microsoft have been going at it the past few days over patent disputes. Google recently shot back at Microsoft and revealed that Google had turned down the opportunity to partner up with Microsoft in bidding for patents.

So lets start from the beginning. Google's Cheif Legal Officer, David Drummond, apparently accused company's like Apple and Microsoft of participating in an organized campaign to take Google's Android platform down though patent lawsuits.

Brad Smith from Microsoft then soon revealed that Google was talking a load of crap and that Google was offered to partner up but had turned down an offer to bid for patents together. Frank Shaw, Microsoft's Head of Communications, posted an email discussing the deal between Google and Microsoft. He even tweeted "Free advice for David Drummond[Google] – next time check with Kent Walker[Google] before you blog."

Drummond responded by saying, "It's not surprising that Microsoft would want to divert attention by pushing a false 'gotcha!' while failing to address the substance of the issues we raised. Making sure that we would be unable to assert these patents to defend Android — and having us pay for the privilege — must have seemed like an ingenious strategy to them. We didn't fall for it."

Frank Shaw, from Microsoft, responded on twitter by saying: "We offered Google the opportunity to bid with us to buy the Novell patents; they said no. Why? BECAUSE they wanted to buy something that they could use to assert against someone else. SO partnering with others & reducing patent liability across industry is not something they wanted to help do."

So apparently, Google did turn down Microsoft's offer. It makes sense because if Google did buy the patents together with Microsoft, it would not have helped them against any litigation against Microsoft. But really, does this sort of public bickering really need to take place?

Yeah, doubt this little fight is over. Lets see who says what next!

Google Docs Tests New Interface which depicts Google+ Interface

2011-08-06T00:50:00.000-07:00

Google Docs has a new interface inspired by Google+ and you can try it here. The interface is clean and there's a lot of white space. You'll also find the familiar red buttons, the gray buttons, the new scrollbars and the labelless search button.

The new interface looks better, but there's a lot of white space that could be used to show more information about the files. The details view is no longer available from the interface, but you can enable it in the old UI and the setting is preserved.

Gmail Unveils Preview Pane: Browse Emails While You Reply to Them

2011-08-05T23:27:00.000-07:00

Gmail is taking a few cues from its tablet apps with Preview Pane, Google’s newest Gmail Labs feature.

Preview Pane, which is now available in Gmail Labs, allows users to simultaneously preview parts of an email while reading or replying to others. Users of Gmail for iPad or Android will instantly recognize the interface — its design is directly inspired by the email service’s mobile web apps.

Activating Preview Pane opens up a three-window panel for Gmail, with the Preview Pane in between the navigation and email panes. Activating the horizontal split places the preview pane at the top and emails below the preview pane. Users can change pane settings with a button that appears on the top right corner of Gmail.Google‘s Official Gmail Blog suggests that users with higher-resolution screens will get the most out of the feature.

The concept of a Preview Pane sounds intriguing, but my initial tests lead me to conclude it’s a clunky and incomplete product. It breaks up my Gmail Labels in a way that keeps them from lining up with Gmail’s navigation pane, leading to a ugly and cluttered look. The standard two-pane system is cleaner, although you probably can get through more emails with Preview Pane activated.

Will you be switching to Preview Pane? Test it out and let us know what you think of it in the comments.

5 Free Tools for Recording Google+ Hangouts

2011-08-05T09:18:00.000-07:00

I search whole internet for special software that record Google+ hangout but nothing found. But we can use one more alternative method for record Google+ hangout using screen recorder. We well known that that screen captures and recorder can record all things on pc screen or you can choose specific window area for record in some software’s. Here I am going to publish some good screen recorder’s that you can use for record Google+ hangout.

1. Screen2exe

I like this software most because it is easy to use and create exe files of recorded videos and we can use these exe files on any computer without worry about any codec pack. You can choose any window area for record like you can select only Google+ hangout record area only for record. After complete recording you can add annotation, text images, fade in/out and cut video frames effects on video and make it more attractive. So I think it is good option for record your Google plus hangout.

[Download Screen2exe]

2. CamStudio

CamStudio is another freeware Windows tool for record Google+ hangout. CamStudio is able to record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create industry-standard AVI video files. You can also use its built-in SWF producer for convert recorded AVI files in SWF formats. You can use this software create video tutorials and other types screen recording. According to me if you are looking for record Google+ hangout in AVI format then you must use this software. If AVI code is not installed on your computer then you can download and install manually codec from website.

[Download CamStudio]

3. BB FlashBack

One more freeware tool we can use for record Google+ hangout and it is BB FlashBack. It can record screen, microphone, PC sounds and webcam video. After record you can export recorded video in SWF, AVI and FLV format in freeware version. In paid version you can select some more format for export video files like mpeg4, wmv and QuickTime formats. The BB FlashBack Express free screen recorder has one-click upload to YouTube, Blip.tv, Viddler and Revver.

[Download BB FlashBack]

4. Screencast-O-Matic

Screencast-O-Matic is the online screen recorder for one-click recording from your browser on Windows, Mac, or Linux without any software installation on system. Screen-O-Matic is available as free and paid version in freeware you can get only basic features but paid you will get more. Java plugin must be install for use this online recording tool. We can use also this tool for record Google Plus hangout.

[Use Screencast-O-Matic]

5. HyperCam

HyperCam is also most popular screen capture software. Using this software you can save you Google Plus hangout in AVI format. HyperCam captures the action from your Windows screen and saves it to AVI (Audio-Video Interleaved) movie file. Sound from your system microphone is also recorded. HyperCam supports text annotations, sound, and screen notes (great for creating automated software demos and software training!). You can also select Frame rate and compression quality prior to recording your movie.

[Download HyperCam]

A Guide to Google+ Privacy and Information Control

2011-08-04T20:03:00.000-07:00

Google+ is the new social networking kid on the block, and one of the main reasons so many people are interested in the service over Facebook is Google+'s proclaimed focus on protecting users' privacy. Whether you're a new Google+ user or you're already a pro, understanding how to control your information on the site can make you feel much more at ease on the social network. Here's the lowdown on Google+'s privacy controls, including a few of the more buried settings you'll want to know about.

This guide will take you through setting up Google+'s circles with an emphasis on how they work from a privacy perspective, how to control what others can see about you on your profile, your options for selectively sharing posts with others, and some miscellaneous settings you'll want to tweak—like only allowing friends to start Huddles with you.

A note on pseudonymity: Google has taken a strong and, I think, awfully mistaken stance on not allowing people to use Google+ with a pseudonym. While this is definitely a privacy issue, it falls outside of this post's purpose of explaining how to use Google+'s privacy settings. Kee Hinckley, a Consulting CTO for Somewhere.com and Lead Architect at Zinc.tv, has written acompelling and thorough post on the subject, and hopefully Google is listening and will rectify this issue

Let's go tackle your main Google+ privacy settings and options:

1. Privacy and Your Circles

Circles are Google+'s uber easy way of organizing your contacts. Most of your privacy controls will stem from how you set your circles up, since you can set privacy controls for both individual posts and your profile information with these customized groups. Basically, you create a circle—such as "Family," "Work," "Tech Bloggers," etc.—and drag people you want to share information with or whose posts you want to follow into those groups.

Things you need to know:

Your circles are private by default. The particular circle groups you set up and which people are in them are only known to you. So you can set up a "Lunatics" circle and put your boss in it and he/she and the rest of the world will be none the wiser.
Managing who sees which posts can still be tricky with this system.The main issue is that it's important to remember who you've put in which circles. You could, by the way, purposely have placed your boss in both a Lunatics circle and Work circle, so you'll need to remember which circles you've placed her in. You'll need to be careful about selecting the right circles to share posts with (more on that in a bit).

Differences between Google+ circles and Twitter followers or Facebook friends

Lots of people like how intuitive and basic using circles is. It's much more upfront and clearer that Facebook's friends lists (which offer useful way to control your Facebook privacy), but there are also some intricacies to keep in mind about how circles work, especially if you're used to how Twitter and Facebook work:

As with Twitter, you can follow anyone else's posts on Google+ (like, ahem, Lifehacker writers) by adding him or her to your circles—without that person also having to follow you. It's not a one-to-one friending model like Facebook. In that sense, it's much more like Twitter.
On the flip side, anyone can add you to his or her circles without your consent; unlike Twitter's "Protect my tweets" option, there's no Google+ setting to require your approval before others can follow you. The onus is on you to choose the right sharing setting for your posts. Even if someone's following you who you'd rather not follow, they'll never see any of your posts as long as you're not posting to the public at large.

So, on the one hand, Google+'s circles are much simpler to set up and use because they form the basis of this social networking model. On the other, it's like a mishmash of other social networks, so it might be confusing at first.

Although anyone can follow you or add you to their circles, the important thing to remember is that the privacy of your posts is always set by you (more on this below). Google+ has many controls for allowing who can see your profile information and also who can see each individual post.

2. Control What People Know About You From Your Profile

Your Google+ profile page links to your background (occupation, education, places lived, etc.), photos and videos shared, and websites you've "+1'ed" from Google search results. So, after setting up your social groups in circles, editing this Google+ profile page is one of the major ways to control your Google+ privacy.

Full size

To edit your profile settings, click on the button that looks like a circle with a silhouette in it, then click the "Edit Profile" button.

Here are the default settings for your profile information:

Full Name: This is the only required part of your profile, and it's visible to all. Changing your name here will change your name across all Google's services.
Anyone on the web can also see: Your introduction, profile photo, gender, who are in your circles, who you've added to your circles, and the button to send you an email (but not your actual email address).
Your circles can see your: introduction, employment, education, places lived, relationship status, looking for, links.
Locked for only you until you change it: your occupation, home and work contact info.

You can change each of these sections to allow viewing by: the whole world (anyone on the web), extended circles, your circles, just you, or a custom grouping. Each privacy group setting has its own icon (see image at left), so when you look at your profile, you can quickly see which parts are shared to which groups.

So, for example, you can set your introduction to be for anyone on the web, your employment to be visible to anyone you've added to your circles, your contact information to be visible to a custom selection of circles such as friends and family, and your relationship status to be only for you and your significant other to see.

Full size

Want to check what your profile looks like to someone else? There's a "View profile as..." input field at the top right of your profile where you can check.

Search visibility. If you don't want your profile to be indexed by Google and it to appear in search results, this is the setting to look for. It's at the bottom of your Profile on the About page. Uncheck "Help others find my profile in search results," which is checked by default.

Full size

Who's in your circles/Which circles you are in. While you're at it (editing your profile page), you can also change the visibility of the people in your social network. Look to the left column. Under your circles lists, click on the "Change who is visible here" to control who can see all the people you have in your circles (i.e., who you're following) as well as everyone who has you in their circles (who are following you).

Full size

Again, by default, everyone on the web can see who you've added to your circles and who has added you to theirs. This, however, is highly customizable.

You have options to make the world think you're only following a select group or groups of people—excluding other groups from their view or hiding all the people you follow, in fact. And you can hide everyone who's added you to their circles, so no one would know how many people or which people are following you.

Profile photos, email, links. The other sections of the profile page are customizable too: your main photo and series of profile photos, that "send an email" link, and your web links. By default, everyone on the web can see these. If this bothers you, here's where you can change it.

Photos

Profile photos, shared albums from Picasa, photos of you tagged by other Google+ users, and Instant Upload photos all appear here. You can choose not show this tab (it's displayed by default), but even if your photos tab is displayed, only those photos that you share with others will appear here to them.

A strange setting for "People whose tags of you are automatically approved to link to your Profile" is set by default to be allowed for your circles. This setting just means if someone tags you in a photo and you approve it, the photo will be linked to your profile and added here.

Geo-location is not added by default, nor are photos uploaded by the Instant Upload feature of the Google+ Android app.

Videos

This section only has the option to hide or show the tab. You'll need to explicitly share videos here, but the tab is shown by default.

+1's

When you like a page or website by clicking on the +1 button in the search results or on the site, it will show up on your profile page if you have this set to be shared by default. (Note: clicking +1 on comments on a post or stream will not show up on this tab. It will only be shown on that thread.) If you don't want people to see your +1's, uncheck this tab (but this begs the question of why you would click any +1 buttons.)

3. Share Only to Select People Using Circles

After organizing people into groups for sharing and adjusting our profile settings, the next major privacy concern is controlling who can see and share the content you post (which can include a photo, web link, video, and/or map/location).

Full size

Groups you can share with: When you share content on the service in your "stream," you can select which Circles or individuals will see that content by adding one or more of these groups:

Public—visible to everyone who has added you to their circles, and shown on your profile page as well
Extended Circles—everyone in the Public group above, plus everyone in their circles, like friends of friends in Facebook, but also a bit spammy feeling
a name of one or more of your Circles
individual names of people on Google+ (this is how you send a direct message to someone on Google+. Just enter their name as the person you are sharing the post with)

Notes about selecting groups you share with:

Once you've specified your group and posted your content, you can't change the group it's shared with. For example, once you've set it to Public for all your circle contacts, it will be public to everyone you ever add to your circles. From now on, it seems.
By default when you create a new post, the circles or people you shared with last will be the ones your next post will be shared with by default. This is convenient if you often share with the same groups or individuals, but it's a good idea to check the "share with" settings for each post.
Sharing with circles is only inclusive, not exclusive. Currently, you can only select specific groups you want to share your content with; you can't set your post to be shared with everyone except for a specific circle or person. This means if you want to be able to post about your rotten workplace, you can't just create a work circle and create a post that excludes that circle; you'll have to create something like "everyone except for work" to share your work horror stories with. Similarly, if I had, for example, Whitson in my Lifehacker circle and wanted to write something about a secret yet also public birthday surprise for him on Google+ and include everyone except him in on the secret, Google+ would not let me do so.

4. Control Your Information Streams and Posts

Besides specifying which circles can view your posts, there are also other post administration tools at your disposal (see the little triangle to the top right of each post you make): If you get trolls on one of your posts, you can remove them individually or report them to Google. You can disable all commenting (e.g., if this is a group thing and you just want to send a notification to your team). And you can disable resharing. These all need to be done manually for each post to protect them.

Incoming streams. Posts from people you've added to your circles will appear in your "stream" under their various circle categories.

For people you haven't added to your circles but who are following you, their posts will be shared with you under the "Incoming" link. You can mute posts you're not interested in seeing there (more trouble than it's worth, probably) or add some of those people to your circles.

Blocking people. If there are too many spammy or offensive or just overwhelming posts from some people, you can block them in your circles settings. "Block" here, however, may not work as you might think. As Hinckley describes it:

"Blocking people hides their posts and comments from your stream, and hides your public posts, but not your comments from their stream. It does not hide either posts or comments when viewed directly on a profile or in the posts themselves.
It actually does more to hide them from you, than it does to hide you from them.
Block does not block. It's a mute button, useful for muting over-sharers."

In other words, don't think of blocking a user as actually protecting your privacy.

Your comments on others' posts are public: Note that your comments on other people's threads, if those threads are shared publicly, are public too and indexed by Google (i.e., searchable). Your +1's of any other people's posts are public too, so that's another thing to be mindful of. An individual post will say "Limited" or "Public" next to the timestamp, so you'll have some idea whether it's shared with a circle or with the public at large.

5. Check Other Obscure Privacy Options and Settings

Full size

Click on the Google+ Settings gear icon to get to the full set of settings. Under the main Google+ section, you can set your notification settings for things like when someone mentions you in a post or adds you to a circle. By default you'll be notified by email for everything.

At the bottom you can change the default of anyone being able to start a Huddle (group text) with you. (This can be really annoying, as Adam Pash can tell you.)

Your Profile and Privacy tab links to most of the other settings we've already mentioned. It's a convenient one-stop page to jump to all the settings, perhaps, as well as to your main Google Account information and Google's Privacy Center.

One nice thing you don't have to worry about is data retention and an encrypted connection.Google has confirmed Google+ uses only an encrypted SSL connection and that the data you delete from Google+ is deleted from their servers.

A Wish List

As a new service, Google+ has a lot of promise and Google has been responsive so far to many privacy concerns. The privacy controls for the most part are very straightforward, and Google's continuing to tweak them. For example, recently they changed the chat feature in Google+ so that you need to explicitly invite people for them to appear in your chat list (and Google says they're working on removing the restriction of all users in your chat list having access to your email address).

There are still lots of usability and privacy features we'd like to see added to Google+, as evidenced by the many extensions available for making the most of the service and a recent discussion on Google+ privacy (thanks to everyone who joined in). Some of the things fellow Google+ers most wished for were: the ability to exclude specific circles or individuals from posts, adding subcircles for finer control, viewing multiple circles' streams at once, and an easier way to view comments and replies to comments in Google+.

Google Realtime Search is coming back soon, and it will include data from Google+

2011-08-04T09:47:00.000-07:00

Google Realtime Search is coming back soon, and it will include data from Google+ and other social sources.

Realtime Search was, until last month, the search giant’s method of delivering relevant data from Twitter, Facebook and other social media services in real time. Whenever a major current event made headlines — such as Osama bin Laden’s death — Google Search would start displaying tweets and Facebook updates from users talking about the recent developments. It made Google‘s search engine more relevant during major world events.

It didn’t last, though. Google took Realtime Search down in July after it failed to come to an agreement with Twitter for continued access to Twitter‘s firehouse of data. Without a constant stream of tweets, the product was far less useful.

“The value the product was providing was not enough,” Google Fellow Amit Singhal said about the decision to turn off the feature during a search panel in Mountain View, California.

When asked about if or when Realtime Search would return, Singhal responded by saying the Google Search team is “actively working” on bringing the product back. He added that the team was experimenting with adding data from Google+ and other sources. It seems as if Google doesn’t believe it needs Twitter data to deliver a compelling real-time search offering.

10 creative uses for Google + Meetups

2011-08-03T09:45:00.001-07:00

At first glance the hangouts or stay at Google + does not seem to attach to the tool, are like a feature added at the last minute. But then you end up realizing that this form of videoconferencing is extremely similar to placing a post and receive written responses. After 5 chats you think about the technological and conceptual genius behind the hangouts. You can chat openly with anyone who will follow in Google +, you can chat with a particular circle, or an individual. The maximum possible is 10 people, and the dynamics are highly fluid, both from standpoint of videoconferencing software, such as the involvement of your classmates talk.

It's amazing what you can achieve from your browser. The tool has virtually no delay, despite the terrible bandwidths that we have in South America. The talk is very fluid, and to be a first version, everything is very well made and fitted. When someone talks is placed on the big screen, so it moves the "role" of the talk, depending on the participation of each person. The use that we can give to this feature of Google + is varied, depends to some extent of our creativity. Here we offer 10 chances to get a full game.

1. Teaching. Is a more than evident. A teacher could organize a circle of students and teach courses to a maximum of 10 students at a time. Can be used for mentoring work with several postgraduate students. The same can work for small issue webinars. After completing any talk is a post on Google +, where you can ask questions, contribute to the conference or class, and so on.
2. Conducting job interviews. You can create a circle of candidates for office, and begin interviews with Hangout. You can group interviews, or individual. Still, after every conversation you have left a post in which you can ask the candidate to provide more data on their performance in previous jobs or other information you need. These posts are private, the circle or individual that was performed.
3. Provide technical support and customer service. You can create a post on Google + in which it indicated times at which you can make one left to resolve problems or concerns. You can have an open post in which to answer questions related to any product or service your company. If a message requires more support, you can start a videoconference with the person. It is important to remember that this tool is combined with everything that is Google +, should not be seen like a chat room isolation.
4. Set up a video surveillance system at home. A cheap way to create a small video surveillance system. It's an idea I saw on Lifehacker, and it is very interesting. It is not a definitive solution because it does a check Google + every 90 minutes if there are people or not any of the talks.
5. Rock concert for fans who have won a contest. Imagine you have a rock band, you want to reward your best fans, which are scattered around the world. How about doing an exclusive concert for 10 people?
6. Knowing your favorite author. You're a young writer, recently published your first book. You can use those left to tell your potential readers details the creative process. If you are a dedicated writer can exchange views and answer questions. You can devote 10 minutes to each group. It's how to sign books of the future.
7. Meetings. The same boring meeting every day, with 10 co-workers, and a bill for posterity in the comments of the post.
8. Make a news conference. Invited 10 journalists, talk with them a curfew. The press conference of the future. The questions are expanded in the post resulting from the left.
9. Perform a product launch. Google Launches + product, and give it to the top 10 coming into your talk. Sure you have some other ideas after reading this.
10. Play. Ever play mime? It is a good day to invite your friends, who were your city and return to those simple moments and fun.

Google+ Android App version 1.0.5

2011-08-02T18:20:00.000-07:00

Features In

v1.0.5
August 2, 2011

Improved notifications reliability
"___ added you to Google+" notifications shown in bulk
Share stream posts to individual people (search people & contacts)
Clicking a +mention takes you to the person’s profile
Stream no longer resets to top when screen is rotated
Nearby accuracy & refresh improvements
Start a one-on-one huddle from a person’s profile or a group huddle from a circle profile
Hide one-on-one huddles
Clickable links in huddles
Confirmation text when leaving a huddle ("Are you sure you want to leave?")
Improved autocomplete (people/contacts) when adding a person to a huddle
Reshared posts show correct profile photo

PinIt Chrome Extension For Google Chrome

2011-08-02T09:56:00.000-07:00

Neat little Chrome extension that lets you "pin" Google+ threads to your sidebar so you can come back to them later easily. One of those things Google should do but this will do for now.

With the Pin It extension you can, "Pin" your favourite post to the sidebar in Google+ so you can always find them and follow a particular thread, post or conversation. Pin your favourite post today!

Click Here for Extension

5 Ways Google+ Will Drive Social Video Growth

2011-08-02T09:46:00.000-07:00

More Focused Sharing

While some have taken advantage of Facebook’s features to segment their personal friend network, many have let their friend pool remain one large network with whom they share everything. This means that when they share a video on Facebook, it goes out to a very broad audience, which includes many people who won’t be interested. Some of us may also hesitate to share a video if it means that everyone in our network — including family and even co-workers — will see it.

The Google+ “Circles” feature, which offers an intuitive way to segment your friend groups, will ease the process of sharing creative brand videos with groups that you know will appreciate them. While I would normally be a little reluctant to share a video as absurd as Skittles Moneyshot with my widely varied Facebook friends, my newly created “Social Video Junkies” Google+ circle will appreciate it.

Co-viewing Experiences
The Google+ Hangouts feature allows for live video chat in the same “room” as multiple friends. Hangouts’ tight integration with YouTube allows for genuinely new social video group experiences.

We all love sharing hilarious videos with friends. The only thing better than getting comments on your Facebook feed or via email is to hear people’s laughter and reactions live, “in person.” Hangouts will offer a new real-time, collaborative viewing experience for social video campaigns, which will massively amplify the benefits of these videos for the brands that create them.

3. Better Data

Data is king at Google. The Google+ Business profiles already promise to include deep analytics, and while little has been announced as yet, one can imagine that powerful new types of social data insights will become available to advertisers about their YouTube campaigns.

By providing rich data capabilities, Google+ could allow advertisers to gather new insights on the quantity and quality of sharing for their campaigns. Google+’s new collaborative features could also introduce interesting new data categories for advertisers, such as average co-viewing view length (how long a group watched a brand’s video together) versus individual view length stats or engagement metrics via Huddle (mobile) versus Hangouts (desktop).

4. SEO Opportunities

While the relationship between the +1 button, Google+ and Google Search is still being sorted out (probably even by Google itself), there are clearly going to be opportunities for advertisers to boost their search results with videos that go viral. Whether content is surfaced based on the +1s of people in your circles or through broad social sentiment around search results, popular social video campaigns stand to gain more search relevance as users interact with it. And once a great video gets discovered, Hangouts and Huddles are sure to follow.

5. Mobile Reach
Now imagine you have created a Hangout with friends. You’re all hysterically laughing at a video together, but one of your friends is not online to join. Google+’s “Huddle” feature now comes into play. With Huddle, you can text groups of people or individual friends via the Google+ mobile app to let them know you’re gathering to watch a video. When friends receive a new message in Huddle, Google+ sends a push notification to their phone.

Huddle stands to be a really interesting way to extend conversations that start at the desk and move into the mobile space. It’s a great way to connect a disparate audience around a good piece of content.

Google+ Hangouts Adding YouTube Live Video Viewing

2011-08-01T10:58:00.000-07:00

The Hangouts group video chat platform on Google+ now lets video-chatting groups of up to ten people watch live streaming videos together on YouTube.

The ability to watch recorded YouTube videos together has been possible in Hangouts from the start, but now, YouTube Live product manager Brandon Badger told GigaOM that Google‘s been quietly rolling out live video stream viewing while chatting in Hangouts.

While it’s not exactly simple to enable a live video feed alongside a Hangout chat now, Google plans to add tools that will make it a lot easier to find those live video feeds on YouTube while using Hangouts. According toGigaOM, it’s already possible to incorporate live feeds into hangouts using the following five-step manual method:

Start a Hangouts session in Google+ and invite your contacts to join you.
In a separate browser tab, head over toYouTube.com/Live and select a live stream of your choice
Copy the YouTube video I.D. of the selected live stream. Not sure how to find it? Just click on the share link below the video. You’ll get to see a link like http://youtu.be/XXXXXXXX – the cryptic code after the slash is the video I.D.
Switch back to hangouts, open the video tab and search for the I.D.
Click play, and you’re all set.

It doesn’t stop there. As you can see above, this is not a convenient way to incorporate live video into a Hangout, so YouTube plans to create tools that will tightly integrate the feature into its Google+ interface, as well as integrate Hangouts into YouTube Live.

For example, Google+ users will be able to watch a live stream on YouTube and see which of their friends are watching that stream in a Hangout. Then, they’ll be able to join their pals to watch that live video, letting them, say, virtually gather together to watch a live football game, with the ability to interact with each other face-to-face at the same time.

Become a Google+ Beta Tester- Google+ Platform Preview

2011-07-30T10:51:00.000-07:00

Want to test new Google+ features before they become available to the public? Now you can, thanks to a newly launched Google+ program.

To sign up to be a beta tester, head over to the Google+ Platform Preview page and enter your email address. Any address will work, so long as you’re signed in to your associated Google+ account.

You’ll need to click on a link in a subsequent confirmation email to confirm your entry into the program. After that, Google will email you every time new features are available for you to test out

27 Google+ People Who Deserve Their Own Circle

2011-07-29T23:45:00.000-07:00

1. Dude Who Hates Mondays

2. People Who Just Woke Up and Are Overly Optimistic About What the Day Holds for Them

3. Breakfast-Food Chroniclers

4. Ladies Who Are Always Having Bad Days

5. Ladies Who Find Happiness in the Most Banal Things, Like, Say, This Sidewalk

6. Bible-Quoting Relatives

7. "Tao of Pooh"-Quoting Relatives

8. On-My-Fourth-Coffee People

9. People Who Just Discovered the Honey Badger Video

10. Dude Who Is Wondering: "How Is It Only Wednesday?"

11. ALL CAPS STATUS UPDATERS!!!

12. people who write like they are e.e. cummings

13. Mr. and Mrs. "Wheels Up!" to Yet Another Fancy-Pants Exotic Location

14. Girls Who Link to Every Cat Video in the History of the Internet

15. The Only Person You Know Who Likes Hockey

16. Exes That Might Be Stalking You

17. TGIF! Dude

18. Old High-School Friends You Wouldn't Recognize if They Were Sitting Next to You

19. Inexplicably Shirtless Profile-Picture People

20. Runner Who Just Finished 2 Miles in 13:20

21. People Who Check Into Every Place That It's Possible to Check Into

22. Dude Who Is So Regretting That 4 A.M. Shot of SoCo and Lime

23. New Parents Who Post Three Dozen Pictures of Their Baby Daily

24. Friends Who Need Help Moving Furniture

25. Google+ Haters Who Hate On It All Day Long on Google+

26. The So…How-Do-I-Know-These-People? People

27. Dude Who Is Nursing His Saturday-Morning Hangover. Ugh

Google+ Gets a Feature Update Center

2011-07-29T08:28:00.000-07:00

In response to user feedback, Google has launched a new section of the Google+ center dedicated to Google+ feature updates.

The “What’s new in Google+” section is essentially a list of release notes for the Google+ Project. The updates are smaller than Google’s traditional blog posts, but longer than most of its Help Center pages. It’s a centralized location for finding out what new features Google has added to its social network.

Most of the “posts” include YouTube video explanations about the feature updates (recorded by Googlers), along with a link to the Google+ post where the feature was announced. The search giant is clearly trying to eat its own dog food when it comes to Google+.

While we appreciate the centralized location for getting updates about Google+ features, we believe the company would be better served setting up a blog for the Google+ project and updating that on a regular basis. At least that way we could subscribe to the updates in our Google Readers (which still counts as the big G eating its own dog food)

Click here for Update Center

Google+ App for iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and iPhone 4

2011-07-29T06:25:00.000-07:00

When launched, the App Store started serving a previous test version of the App which didn't have the stability and fixes that the latest version had. It started serving the correct version a little later. If you downloaded within the first 1 hour 40 mins, you may have downloaded the older test version.

Google+ for mobile makes sharing the right things with the right people a lot simpler. Huddle lets you send super-fast messages to the people you care about most. And no matter where you are, the stream lets you stay in the loop about what your friends are sharing and where they’re checking in.

Features:
* Circles let you share the right things with just the right people.
* Stream is where you can get updates from your circles or see what people are saying about things nearby.
* Huddle is super-fast group messaging for everyone in your circles.

Google+ is only available for users 18 and older.

Click here for App.

40 Google Plus Tips For Power Users

2011-07-27T18:29:00.000-07:00

Google+ Tips

1. Use hotkeys to get around Google+ faster. In your Stream, press "j" or "k" to move through posts, and press Enter to start a comment. (Pressing Tab and then Enter will cause your comment to be submitted; hitting Tab twice and then Enter will cause it to be cancelled.) You can also press "q" to jump to the Google+ chat box.

2. Hotkeys work in the notification drop-down, too: Press "j" or "k" to move up or down in the list, and then press Enter to open any individual notification. When viewing a notification, "j" or "k" will let you progress forward or backward to other items. Pressing "Esc" will close the notification window altogether.

3. Want more hotkeys? Check out the G+ Extended extension for the Chrome Web browser. It adds a series of additional options, including hotkeys for +1'ing posts, sharing posts, and expanding comments.

4. If comments are getting out of control in your Stream, try the +Comment Chrome extension. It collapses all comment threads so you see them only when you click to expand. Another good option is the G+me Google+ extension; it leaves comments expanded by default but gives you a one-click option to collapse any thread or post on demand. It also provides badge-style comment counters to help you keep tabs on new activity for items you've collapsed.

5. You can take a specific item entirely out of your Stream by clicking the small drop-down arrow next to it, then selecting "Mute this post." That'll also keep you from receiving any future notifications about the item.

6. On your own posts, that same drop-down arrow holds options to shut down comments and prevent people from resharing. The commands affect only the specific item you're viewing.

7. Sometimes leaving a comment on an active post can turn into a bouncing-screen challenge, thanks to the top-of-page activity always pressing your Stream downward. To solve this, click the drop-down arrow next to the post you're viewing and select "Link to this post." That'll open the post in a new tab; type your comment there, then close the tab when you're finished.

8. Google+ lets you stylize text within posts and comments. To italicize, sandwich your text with underscores _like this_; to make text bold, use asterisks *like this*; and to create a strikethrough effect, use dashes -like this-.

9. Make Google+ a little easier on the eyes with the Google+ Ultimate extension for Chrome. It separates posts into individual boxes with an offset background and forces the top status bar and left sidebar to stay in fixed positions while you scroll. Another good option is the similar Usability Boost extension; it gives a slightly different modified look to the site that some users may prefer.

10. Mention (or "tag") someone in a post or comment by typing "+" or "@" and then the person's name. Google+ is still a bit wonky at times about bringing up the right result; try typing the name slowly and enclosing it in quotation marks (e.g. +"Bob Sacamano") if you have trouble.

11. Improve the G+ reply mechanism immensely by grabbing the Replies and More Google+ Chrome extension. The extension puts links throughout G+ that let you reply to the author of any post or comment with a single click -- and without all the "+"-typing hassle.

12. To start a private conversation with a friend or multiple friends, just share an update like you normally would -- but be sure to remove "Public" and any other circles from the share box. Then, tag your friend or friends using the "+" syntax mentioned above. They'll receive notifications about the message, and you'll be able to have an ongoing dialogue in the comments for the post. If you want to be extra safe, you could also disable resharing using the process described in tip #6.

13. Power up your Google+ Stream with the +Photo Zoom Chrome extension. With it installed, you can hover your mouse over any photo in your Stream to see an enlarged version of the image right there.

14. The Google+ mobile app allows you to view posts from people in your geographic area (using the section labeled "nearby"). Little-known fact: You can access that function from your desktop, too; just load the mobile version of Google+ to do it.

15. The Google+ mobile app has a hidden feature of its own: When viewing your Stream, press the menu key and select "Manage Views." Then, check off all your favorite circles and select "Done." You'll now be able to swipe right from the main Stream to view those circles individually.

16. Use Google+ to save posts and other important content. Go to your Circles page and search for your own name. Add yourself to a new circle called ".Save" (or something to that effect). Then, anytime you see something in your Google+ Stream that you want to save, just share it with your .Save circle. You can browse through your saved stuff by opening your .Save stream (it'll be at the top of the "Stream" list on the left-hand side of your Google+ home page). No one other than you will be able to see it.

17. If you use a note-taking service like Evernote, you can save content directly from Google+ into your off-site notepad. First, find your account-specific Evernote email address. Add that address into a new Google+ circle called "Evernote" -- then, anytime you want to save something from Google+ to Evernote, just share it with that circle. Google+ will send the content in an email, and Evernote will translate it into a notebook item in your account.

18. Want certain circles to show up higher than others in the main Stream list? Circles whose names begin with a period (like ".Save") will always shoot up to the top. Names starting with an asterisk (like "*Important") will appear next.

19. The default Google+ circles will always appear above everything else. To get around this, create your own new circles to replace the default ones (e.g. "My Acquaintances" to replace "Acquaintances," and so on). Be sure to move everyone from the default circle to your new replacement one, then delete the default circle when you're done.

20. When moving people into circles on your Google+ Circles page, hold down Ctrl or Shift to select more than one person at a time. You can also click and drag to draw a box and select multiple people to move.

21. To copy one entire circle into another circle, click on the first circle and select "View circle in tab." Then select "More actions" and "Select all." Now, just drag the entire group down into the other circle and -- voilà! -- the deed is done.

22. Change the layout of the Circles page by clicking and dragging the divider line up or down between circles and people. This allows you to create more space on either side of the line.

23. If you want to look at a lot of people at once on the Circles page, try pressing Ctrl and "-" a few times to zoom your browser out and make the content smaller. You can always press Ctrl and "0" to return to the normal view.

24. From the Circles page, double-click on any person to jump right to his or her profile.

25. Try this: On the Circles page, hover your mouse over a circle that has at least 30 people in it, then scroll with your mouse's scroll wheel. The faces in the circle will rotate around like a carousel, giving you a nice graphical way to see who's inside

26. Find new people by searching for topics or locations in the search box at the top of the Google+ page. You'll get back a list of people who have your keyword somewhere in their profile.

27. Search Google+ from Google by putting "site:plus.google.com" at the end of your query. To search only through posts you've written or shared, use "site:plus.google.com/[your Google ID]" -- replacing "[your Google ID]," of course, with your own unique Google ID (the long number that appears in the URL when you click on your profile).

28. If you want to get really fancy, you can create special commands for searching Google+ within Chrome. Go into the "Manage search engines section" of your browser's settings and add a new entry called "Google+ Posts." Set the keyword as "post" and the URL as "{google:baseURL}search?q=site:plus.google.com inurl:posts/* %s." Add another new entry called "Google+ Profiles." Set its keyword as "profile" and its URL as "{google:baseURL}search?q=%s&tbs=prfl:e." Then, when you want to search through Google+ posts, just type "posts" followed by your query into the browser's location bar. To search Google+ profiles, type "profiles" followed by your keyword.

29. Jazz up your Google+ profile with a row of photos along the top of the page. Click the "Edit Profile" button on your profile page and then click on the large blank space beneath your name and short bio. There's plenty of room for creativity; check out this story at Mashable for some supercool examples.

30. You can edit photos right within Google+. Open any image from the "Photos" tab of your profile, then click the drop-down box labeled "Actions" and select "Edit photo." There, you'll find a variety of options for color and contrast correction as well as special effects.

31. All of your Google+ photos are actually stored in Picasa. You can see and share them from Google's Picasa Web Albums site.

32. Google+ makes it easy to see how your profile looks to other people. Just go to the "Profile and privacy" section of the Google+ settings and type any user's name into the box labeled "See how your profile appears to other users." Click "Preview," and you'll get a glimpse at yourself through someone else's eyes.

33. Get a permanent link to any Google+ post by clicking on its timestamp. If the post was shared publicly, this link will work for anyone -- even if they aren't signed into the Google+ service.

34. Expand your Google+ sharing options with the Extended Share extension for Chrome. It gives you added commands on every post to send the content to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Tumblr.

35. Google+ doesn't officially offer RSS feeds yet, but you can make your own by adding your Google+ ID number to plusfeed.appspot.com. Mine, for example, would behttp://plusfeed.appspot.com/108233028875375016776.

36. If you're jonesing to send your Google+ updates directly into other social networks, you can use your newly created RSS feed to do it. A service called Twitterfeed will take that feed and shoot it straight into your Twitter and/or Facebook account. (Just don't blame me when everyone on Twitter and Facebook starts unfollowing you.)

37. Anytime you +1 a story on the Web, it'll show up in the "+1" tab of your Google+ profile, giving you an easy way to save favorites or stories you want to read later. The +1 Button Chrome extension puts the +1 button into your browser's URL bar so you always have easy access.

38. Ever find yourself browsing in another tab and constantly switching back to Google+ to look for new notifications? Install the G+ Count Chrome extension. It puts your current notification count in the front of your Google+ page title so you can always see it at a glance.

39. For even more robust G+ browser integration, give the Surplus Chrome extension a whirl. It adds a live Google+ notification count to the top of your browser; you can even click the button to access your notifications right there, without having to open Google+ at all.

40. Google doesn't yet offer a way to create a memorable URL for your Google+ profile, but some third-party services are stepping up to fill the gap. Try gplus.to; you give it your Google+ ID number and pick a nickname, and it gives you a short link that points directly to your page. Or, if you have your own domain and are comfortable messing with the .htaccess file, you can create a "yourdomain.com/+" redirect with a single line of code. Googler Daniel Sandler has posted detailed instructions, fittingly enough, on Google+.

Google plus comes to Windows Phone 7

2011-07-27T12:05:00.000-07:00

Google is a company that has repeatedly proved itself in every arena, except social networking. After the Google Buzz debacle, Google has tried to redeem itself by launching the Google+ social network.

Google + is Google's attempt to ace Facebook and Twitter. It has tried to compete with these two by providing the Google+ app on almost every smartphone platform. It has already unveiled the Google+ app for the iPhone and Android phones and the Google+ app for Windows phone 7 release next week.

The Google+ app for the Windows Phone 7 is not much different from the Facebook app for the same platform but it does offer some advantages.

Unlike Facebook, where you cannot edit a post after you have posted, the Google + app on your windows phone provides you the ability to modify a post even after sharing it. It has enhanced integration with Google Chat. It has fixed one of the major issues with Facebook, which is its photo-sharing capability. One can instantly upload photos with Google+. Unlike Facebook, you can update Google+ right from your home screen. In addition to that, it also keeps a tab on the user's location and provides advanced privacy settings. As a Google+ user, you can customize everything as per your own usage whether it is notifications, account settings or anything else.  

Google+ has an edge over other social networks as it offers the ability to use applications such as Google Docs and calendar with its circles.

You can also switch this application off on your Windows Phone 7 according to your own convenience.

Google+ has already generated a storm in the market. Its availability on the Windows phone 7 makes it even more popular and provides a win-win situation for both.

Source ..Click Here

Google Triples the Speed of the +1 Button

2011-07-27T08:37:00.000-07:00

The +1 button is about to get a whole lot faster, thanks to an update Google rolled out on Tuesday.

“We’ve begun to roll out out a set of changes that will make the button render up to 3x faster on your site,” software engineer David Byttow said in a blog post. “No action is required on your part, so just sit back, relax, and watch as the button loads more quickly than before.”

In addition to the speed boost, Google also introduced new code that speeds up the +1 button via an asynchronous code snippet. The code allows a web page to load with the +1 JavaScript code in parallel. The result is another improvement in page load time. The code is available on the +1 configuration page.

The +1 button is Google’s answer to Facebook’s Like Button. Since its launch, it has quickly gained adoption, and one report even claims its more widespread than the Twitter Tweet Button.

Google+ adds $45 billion to Net giant's market value

2011-07-26T18:26:00.000-07:00

The launch and hyper growth of Google's ambitious Google+ social site has helped fuel a meteoric rise in the company's stock.

Thursday marks one month since the search king unveiled its Google+ to grab attention and advertising dollars away from Facebook. Google+ is the search company's foray into social networking that numbers more than 10 million members since launch.
In that time, Google stock is up nearly 30%, boosting the company's valuation by $45 billion to a market capitalization of roughly $200 billion.

"Google+ has had a lot to do with the perceptions," says Scott Kessler, equity analyst at Standard & Poor's Equity Research. "People look at Google as being … a pretty important player in social media."
Put into perspective, the valuation gain is more than half the estimated value of privately traded Facebook. The social-networking giant holds an $84.7 billion valuation on the private stock-trading network Sharespost.com. And Facebook launched more than seven years ago.

Google's one-month valuation jump is more than five times Twitter's estimated $8 billion value and more than double Groupon's $18.1 billion, according to Sharespost.com. Twitter hasn't filed to go public.
Google stock traded at $482.80 on June 27, the day before Google+ launched, and closed at $622.52 Tuesday. Google shares touched a 52-week high of $642.96 earlier in the year.

To be sure, Google's blockbuster second-quarter profit gains of 36%, reported July 14, didn't hurt in nudging up the stock. But Google opened the earnings call trumpeting whopping adoption numbers for Google+ and focused praise on the product's mojo companywide. CEO Larry Page used the call to tout Goggle+'s 10 million users, grabbed in just two weeks.

Still, it remains to be seen how well Google+ fares once the honeymoon is over. Google has already taken some lumps over its axing of business users. Google responded by saying it plans a launch for businesses later this year.

Google+ Ultimate for Google Plus

2011-07-26T10:30:00.000-07:00

This is an extension for Google Plus (plus.google.com, G+, Google+) to add functionatility and themeing for the site. I have big plans for added features, but I'm taking them slow so I can get them all working properly before moving to the next.

FEATURES:

-Adds stylized theme to Google Plus to add to the experience and make it easier to read.
-Adds notifications to the extension icon (beta)
-Enables floating top and left navigation along with an ultra compact navigation to help minimalize the navigation
-Enables an option side-by-side status viewing and/or scrollable statuses(off by default) http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18919663/newsidebysideviews.jpg (For preview)
-Allows option to move Chatbox to the top navigation as a drop down button. (on by default, but can be turned off)
-Thin scrollbars option (on by default)
-Resize images and embeds to a smaller thumbnail (for those who prefer Facebook's style of image sharing)
-Many many more!

Click Here For extension

Beautify G+ Chrome Extension

2011-07-26T08:22:00.000-07:00

This extension will add some features that are missing in Google Plus, starting with:

* Fixed position of the menubar
* Fixed position of the left column
* Fixed position of the right column
* +1 any Website you are on
* Option to hide suggestions and "Go Mobile"
* Option to enable favicon notifications
* Option to enable audio notifications

Click Here for Extension

Top 104 Photographers To Circle In Google+

2011-07-25T18:26:00.000-07:00

100 brilliant photographers for you to follow.Google+ is a great showcase for professional photographers. With in-house editing tools like Picnik, and beautiful ways to display your work, photographers can really shine.

Photo Website Founders

+Dave Powell - founder of ShootTokyo

+Don MacAskill - the co-founder and CEO of SmugMug

+Evgeny Tchebotarev - co-founder and creative director of 500px

+Lisa Bettany - Camera+ co-founder

+Peter Bargh - founder of ePHOTOzine

Google+ Photos/Picnik

+Brenda Anderson – Picnik Community Builder

+Brian Rose – Community Manager for Google+ Photos

+Dave Cohen - Google+ Photos engineer

+Thomas Kang – Google+ Photos software engineer

+Vincent Mo - Google+ Photos software engineer

Googler Steve Lacey Killed by Drunk Driver

2011-07-25T18:20:00.000-07:00

Google engineer Steve Lacey, 43, a veteran of the Seattle region’s tech community who worked for more than a decade at Microsoft, died Sunday in a car crash in Kirkland.
KING 5 News reports that that Lacey was the victim of a road rage incident in which he hadn’t been involved. A widely respected software engineer who often displayed his sense of humor on his well-read blog, Lacey had two children, ages 5 and 7. He and his wife had recently celebrated their 10th anniversary.
Lacey, who received his master’s in software engineering in his native U.K., moved to Redmond in 1997 from London, two years after the 3D graphics startup where he worked was acquired by Microsoft. His online bio describes his work at Microsoft and demonstrates his passion for technology.

Lacey left Microsoft in January 2006 to start SwitchGear software with another former Microsoftie, Joe Stacy. Later that year, Lacey joined Google’s Kirkland office.
“The food was too good to be ignored,” he explained in his bio.
He also worked briefly at Facebook last year, according to his Google+ profile, but he had been working most recently at Google, focusing on Chrome video.
In the incident Sunday afternoon, state troopers told KING-5 that the driver of a Hyundai Sonata lost control, rolled and crashed into a BMW being driven by Lacey on NE 85th Street. The Hyundai driver had exited Interstate 405 at high speed in pursuit of another car that the Hyundai driver says cut him off on the freeway. KING reports that investigators believe the Hyundai driver had been drinking.

10 Creative Ways To Use Google Plus Hangouts

2011-07-25T12:51:00.000-07:00

1. Celebrating Birthdays

You are having birthday of your kid and some of family members are not around. Its an inexplicable emotional feeling to see your loved one’s face at his/her birthday. Through Google+ Hangouts other members who are not present and are on different places, can enjoy those moments of celebration.

2. Hangouts Of Live Cooking

You want to make a dish but not sure about the recipe. Don’t worry, go and hangout with your friends and organize a live cooking session. Its amazing to make food while hanging out with friends.

3. To Teach Remote Students

A good resource for those who give online coaching to their students. With hangouts, its like a live classroom over internet. Imagine one teacher taking individual coaching of a student or simultaneously imparting knowledge to 9 students.

4. Weekend Chat With Friends

Its a long time after you started this new job or left college or moved out to this place and from that long you haven’t talked much to your friends. Go, invite your friends over a weekend hangout and enjoy those old college jokes, discuss about new happenings and feel the magic of being with them again.

5. Client Meetup Over Hangouts

Skype is a great tool to have professional remote meetings but it has its own limitations in terms of group meetings. Try Google Plus Hangout for a client meetup. You can feel it a bit unprofessional but its OK after all you are there to work and that too more efficiently, not to show off.

6. Hangout Project Discussions

You are working with a team of guys who are masters in their areas and they are all in different countries or places. Use hangout to discuss project plans, strategies, schedules and processes etc.

7. See Synced Youtube Videos With Friends & Families

You can not enjoy alone for long. Few people can say, they do but the reality of joy is enjoying together. Watching videos together with your friends and families is another experience you may have by Google+ Hangouts.

8. Hangout With Your Audience

This looks strange but it works. Hanging out with your audience in a way that KOMU-TV in Columbia is doing. Sarah Hill, an anchor from the channel has organized hangout and started inviting her friends to give them a view of behind-the-scenes newsroom.

9. Recruitment Interviews On Hangouts

This is something that could be interesting for some. In those cases where applicant is in another city and for interview he has to travel long or you have to organize a group discussion of 8-9 people to get an idea about who is best among them, you can use Google+ Hangouts.

10. Collaborative Working Through Hangouts

Many collaborative working tools are available in the market from live document editing solutions to p2p services. Google+ Hangout can be a pretty good tool for social collaborative working.

For some, some of the above may work and some not. What you think? Which one could work for you? or how you would like to use hangouts in your own way?

Google Acquires Facial Recognition Technology Company

2011-07-24T08:07:00.000-07:00

Google has acquired a seven-year-old company that develops facial-recognition technology for images and video, though the Web-search giant didn’t say what it plans to do with it.

The company, called Pittsburgh Pattern Recognition, or PittPatt, is run by three “image analysis” and “pattern recognition” specialists with PhD’s from Carnegie Mellon University, according to its site. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

A statement on PittPatt’s site said on Friday that “computer vision technology is already at the core of many existing products” at Google, including Image Search, YouTube and Picasa, “so it’s a natural fit to join Google and bring the benefits of our research and technology to a wider audience. We will continue to tap the potential of computer vision in applications that range from simple photo organization to complex video and mobile applications.”

A Google spokesman said PittPatt developed “innovative technology” in the area of computer vision and that its research “can benefit our users in many ways,” without elaborating.

Regarding face recognition, the spokesman said, “We’ve said that we won’t add face recognition to our apps or product features unless we have strong privacy protections in place, and that’s still the case.”

Google has said it built facial recognition technology for smartphones into a product known as Google Goggles, but withheld it. “As far as I know, it’s the only technology that Google built and after looking at it, we decided to stop,” said Google Chairman Eric Schmidt last month at a conference. “People could use this stuff in a very, very bad way as well as in a good way.”

During its annual developer conference in May, Google showed off something called “Virtual Camera Operator,” which uses computer-vision technology to stabilize mobile video chats by following a person’s head movements and to determine who is speaking during a multi-person video conference so that the camera would automatically focus on the speaker.

It also recently launched Google+, a social network that lets people share and store photos, among other things. Rival Facebook has face-recognition technology to identify people in photos, which has raised concerns from privacy advocates. The technology, first introduced last year, was designed to help Facebook users easily identify and mark, or “tag,” friends in photos as they upload them to the social-networking site.

“If for any reason someone doesn’t want their name to be suggested” for tagging, “they can disable the feature in their Privacy Settings,” Facebook has said.

PittPatt’s software “accurately counts the number of people viewed by a video camera” and “it can automatically generate reports measuring the presence and movement of people over extended periods of time,” according to a cached version of its website.

Some of the “practical applications” of the technology include measuring “the effectiveness of digital signage, advertising, kiosks and narrowcasting”; “customer traffic flow,” or gathering “insight into customer behavior and shopping patterns; “security-related matters” such as being able to send alerts when the PittPatt software detects a face that isn’t in its database.

PittPatt offered a tool for people to “integrate face finding and tracking into your own product,” and in 2007 it partnered with General Electric to develop an “intelligent security camera system,” the site said. The GE system “will obtain high resolution facial imagery using a motorized pan-tilt-zoom camera that will track and zoom in on faces that enter the field of view,” according to the site.

Top 15 Chrome Extensions For Google Plus | 15 Most Used Chrome Extensions For Google Plus

2011-07-23T18:54:00.000-07:00

1)Photo Zoom : +Photo Zoom is a simple extension providing fast and simple zooming for photos within your Google+ Stream. Just hover over the image you wish to zoom and +Photo Zoom will load the enlarged version of the picture.

Click here for Extension

2) Surplus : This plugin opens Google+ account in a pop window from Navigation Bar.
Features:
* Post or respond from within the popup
* Desktop Notifications
* Notification sounds
* Switch between multiple Google accounts

Click here for Extension

3) Start G+ : This extension helps to put your Facebook and Twitter streams inside your Google Plus. Automatically post to Facebook and Twitter whenever you share something on Google Plus. It also adds a Gmail inbox notifier to the top bar, so that you do not have to keep a gmail tab open. Clicking on the Gmail icon shows a menu with the unread messages that let you access your emails directly inside Google+.

Click here for Extension

4) Share+ Social Buttons for Google Plus : Similar Plugin like Start G+. This Chrome extension will add a context-link icon below your Google Plus post in order to share your post to some well-known social platforms.

5) G+ Extended : This extension adds some much needed shortcuts for users of Google+.
Press “+” for +1′ing a post.
Press “-” for removing your +1 on a post.
Press “p” to toggle your +1 on a post.
Press “s” to share a post.
Press “e” to expand older comments on a post.
Click here for Extension

6) Helper for Google+ : This extension adds twitter and translate link to every Google Plus post. Translate posts with Google Translate to language specified by you.

Click here for Extension

7) Usability Boost for Google Plus : Google+ layout is simple and elegant. This extension helps to focus on the content, separating visually posts and comments.The Google/Notification bar stays at a fixed position on top so you’ll never miss a notification again.

Click here for Extension

8) Notification Count for Google Plus or GPlus notifications: This plugin creates a notification button on the top navigational bar in your chrome browser. The button will show when a new update,comment notification about your Google plus account.

Click here for Extension

9) Facebook Like for Google plus : This extension adds “Facebook Like” button instead of “+1 button” in your Google+ account .

10) Google +1 & Facebook Like : Recommend any webpage via Google +1 [plus one] and Facebook LIKE in just 2 clicks. Its Simple, Fast and Light weight..
Click here for Extension

11) Color Plus : Color Plus is a Chrome extension that lets you change the color of the Google Plus bar because the gray is utterly boring.

Click here for Extension

12) -1 Minus One : This extension adds -1 button in Google+ . Its a similar one to Facebook’s dislike button.

Click here for Extension

13) +Comment Toggle : +Comment Toggle hides any comments to posts within your Stream and makes them available if and when you actually want to see them.

Click here for Extension

14) Facebook style Theme for Google+: Facebook+ is a new extension for Google Chrome which transforms the look of Google+ and makes it similar to Facebook. Facebook+ is a simple extension to change some of the elements in Google+ to look like Facebook.

Click here for Extension

15) Extended Share for Google Plus : This add-on helps to share Google Plus Posts on other social network Sites. Google+ does not have a quick way sharing your posts to Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, this extension will add a link “Share on …” to each post. Once clicked, it will bring up an internal bubble asking you where to share your post.

Click here for Extension

List Of Facebook Employees On Google Plus

2011-07-23T10:18:00.000-07:00

LIST OF FACEBOOK EMPLOYEES ON GOOGLE+

So, there seemed to be a lot of interest in this Googlers on Google+ list: 4 Facebook employees are also on G+ and can make for a very interesting circle. Here we go!

Founder/CEO
+Mark Zuckerberg

Executive Team
+Christopher Cox (VP, Product)
+Lori Goler (VP, Human Resources & Recruiting)
+Dan Rose (VP, Partnerships & Platform Marketing)
+Sheryl Sandberg (Chief Operating Officer)
+Elliot Schrage (VP, Global Comm., Marketing & Public Policy)
+Mike Schroepfer (VP, Engineering)
+Bret Taylor (Chief Technology Officer)

Directors
+Kate Aronowitz (Director of Design)
+Ethan Beard (Director of Facebook Developer Network)
+Peter Deng (Director of Product Management)
+David Fisch (Director of Business Development)
+Debbie Frost (Director of Comm./Public Affairs)
+Justin Osofsky (Director of Platform Partnerships)
+Blake Ross (Director of Product)
+Alex Schultz (Director of Growth)
+vaughan smith (Director of Corporate Development)

Product
+Paul Adams (Product Manager)
+Eric Antonow (Product Marketing)
+Will Cathcart (Product Manager)
+luke delorme (Product Manager)
+Rohit Dhawan (Lead Product Manager, FB Pages)
+Naomi Gleit (VP, User Feedback)
+Adrian Graham (Product Manager, FB Questions)
+Cat Lee (Platform Product Marketing)
+sam lessin (Product Manager)
+David Recordon (Senior Open Programs Manager)

Engineering
+Keith Adams (Software Engineer)
+Aditya Agarwal (Engineering Director)
+Arjun Banker (Software Engineer)
+Jing Chen (Software Engineer)
+Brent Goldman (Software Engineer)
+Benjamin Golub (Engineer, Platform)
+Adam Hupp (Software Engineer)
+Pedram Keyani (Engineer, Site Integrity)
+Tobie Langel (Software Engineer)
+Justin Mitchell (Engineer, FB Photos)
+Zach Rait (Engineer, Infrastructure)
+Arthur Rudolph (Software Engineer)
+Yariv Sadan (Engineer, Mobile)
+Luke Shepard (Engineering Manager)
+Mike Vernal (Engineer, Platform)

Design
+Nathan Borror (Product Designer)
+Eric Fisher (Social Design Strategist)
+Rob Goodlatte (Product Designer)
+Drew Hamlin (Product Designer)
+Greg Hoy (Design Recruiter)
+Francis Luu (Product Designer)
+Adam Mosseri (Product Design Manager)

Partner/Developer Relations
+Jeff Bowen (Platform Developer Relations)
+Jacqueline Chang (Strategic Partner Manager)
+Andy Katzman (Platform Partnerships)
+Vadim Lavrusik (Journalist Program Manager)
+andy mitchell (Strategic Media Partnerships)

Mobile
+Erick Tseng (Head of Mobile Products)

Research
+Pete Bratach (Technical Writer)
+Sean Bruich (Monetization Analytics)
+Cameron Marlow (Data Scientist)

Advertising/Marketing
+Kevin Colleran (Sales)
+Todd Miner (Head of Sales IT)
+eric toda (Ad Ops, Global Marketing Solutions)

Recruiting
+Richard Cho (Recruiting Manager)
Source http://www.businessinsider.com

Bradley Horowitz and Vic Gundotra Interview With Techcrunch

2011-07-23T09:30:00.000-07:00

Miss the TechCrunch Q&A with Bradley Horowitz (Google's VP Product) and Vic Gundotra (Google's VP Social)? Transcribed some of the most interesting quotes below.

Why is Google+ called a "project"?
VG: Project we think implies a longer term effort. We think project is more inclusive. We're going to build this thing together with the community, with various parts of Google, and we're pretty excited about it.

Are you the fathers of Google+?
BH: This project involved many, many people, a lot of talented people on the team that have been pouring their enthusiasm, their passion into this project for a long time. Vic and I have been honored to be part of that team, and sort of shepherd it along; there's a role for us on that team, I think, but the contributions of the team itself are what make the product sing.

What is the focus of Google+?
BH: Putting people first. Understanding that the Web is more than a Web of pages, or even a Web of apps, it's a Web of people. People is the fabric that connects us together. The pages and the apps are really artifacts. If we understand people, who you know, what you care about, those kinds of things, we can provide a great service to you, across all that Google does. So it's not just Google+ itself, but understanding who the user is will make a better search, will make a better maps, will make a better Chrome and Android. So that was the basic premise - in understanding people, we could return tremendous value to our users.

So people come before the algorithm?
VG: We think a basic human need is the need to connect with others. And one of the best ways to connect with others is to share something with them. And today that sharing is happening online. But when we look at how sharing happens online, we think in many ways it's broken. Many of the nuances that we have in the real world, looking at somebody, making eye contact with them, adjusting the volume of our voice to a whisper when it's confidential, all these subtleties, the richness that we have in real life is very much lost in the online world. We're given very harsh choices, like limit your communication to "this long" and it all has to be public. Or we have to bucket everybody, all your relationships, into "these are my friends." So we think there's tremendous room for innovation to get the online world to more closely resemble the richness of how we really share and connect with people.

Why should an ordinary person, a regular Internet user, be on Google+? What can you offer that other services like Facebook and Twitter don't?
BH: There are many points of differentiation in the product. And as you pointed out, we haven't even launched yet. We have a limited field trial to market. We are humbled and overwhelmed by the response. When we say limited field trial, I think a lot of people apply the word limited to the size of the audience, whereas we think of limited as limited in functionality. For instance, it has been noticed that we don't have business profiles as part of the system. We have not launched the sum total of what we intend to launch. In fact, as we have said, this is a project that is very long term. So there are many more pieces of functionality that are on the way. We're certainly accelerating their launch in response to the enthusiasm we're seeing in the market. But we didn't expect, frankly, and this isn't posturing, we did not expect this kind of interest this soon. And so many of the things that would make the product comfortable to someone who isn't a technophile or in Silicon Valley are not yet in the product, but they're coming.

What's the thinking behind Hangouts?
VG: We thought, why is it -- considering we have cameras on virtually all of our devices. We carry our devices all over the place. We have high speed networks. Then we asked our friends and family, do you do video chat with your family? It was amazing that most people said no. Very, very few people used video chat. And when we analyzed it, we found there were 3 primary reasons: number 1, group video chat costs money and it's expensive, and people didn't want to pay. Number 2, it's hard to set up, calling your dad to have him install this software, get past the virus protection, and having him configure it, it's just too much of a hurdle. But the biggest issue, it was socially awkward. It was really awkward to have some free time at 10 o'clock at night, send a message to some friends and say, hey, do you want to start a video chat? What if your friend isn't dressed correctly? What if it makes her feel awkward? What if she says no? Then you may feel rejected. So we worked on the social dynamics. And what Hangouts does, it allows you, in a very nice way, it's not socially awkward, to say, hey I'm hanging out on my porch. I'm available, if you're available too, you can join. And as friends join you, as more and more people join you in your front yard, on your porch, your neighbors can see that and can join you, and say, 'Oh, it's Vic, talking to Bradley, and Lisa's there, and I'm going to join in too, now I feel comfortable.' So the dynamic we started to create is unlike many of these other services. Lower the barrier and make it fun.

Can you talk about your embrace of privacy with Google+?
BH: For us, privacy isn't something buried six panels deep on some setting that you can set and forget. The model itself inspires trust. The fact that anytime I post something, I get to choose who gets to see it. Anytime I comment on something, I can see who's in the room and understand the audience that I'm addressing. These sorts of things are comforting to people, and they've been absent from tools. And I think people haven't even recognized why they're uncomfortable sharing something until the light is shone on these and you can actually understand these basic principles.

How can people get involved in Google+?
VG: First of all, the folks who have been giving us feedback on Google+, thank you. Our team has been paying serious attention, responding to as much as it can, and you can really be involved by helping to guide the project by giving us your viewpoint. In terms of getting a job at Google, we're always looking for talented people. One of our biggest challenges is finding qualified people that can contribute to our project. If you have an interest in working with Google, we're interested in hearing from you."

Start G+ for Google Plus

2011-07-23T03:44:00.000-07:00

FEATURES
Start Google+ is designed to help you jump right in to Google's new social network. Here's a few things that the plugin can do:

* Put your Facebook and Twitter streams inside your Google Plus stream, complete with "Stream" links on the side and rich media

* Automatically post to Facebook AND Twitter whenever you share something on Google Plus (you can turn this on/off from within the share window in Google Plus - see the screenshots)

* Add a Gmail inbox notifier to the top bar, so that you do not have to keep a gmail tab open. Clicking on the Gmail icon shows a menu with the unread messages that let you access your emails directly inside Google+.

README: HOW IT WORKS
This plugin adds features to the Google Plus website within the Chrome browser. After installing, you will not notice much different - except new items appear within the plus.google.com website, such as the Gmail notification icon you see in the screenshots. There is a help section in the drop-down menu, so you can learn more about the usage of the app there.

KNOWN ISSUES

* The Chrome extension WidgetBlock does not work with this plugin and will break it. WidgetBlock, like a few other plugins, intentionally breaks Facebook Connect features.

Click Here To download Extension.

Hangout Finder for Google Plus -Chrome Extension

2011-07-23T00:32:00.000-07:00

Easily find and share public google plus™ hangouts with hangouts finder.

This is an extension o for those that just really love google plus™ hangouts and want to have quick access built into their browser! Jump into hangouts and share hangouts with others!

This is the first version.
Click here for Extension

G+me for Google Plus- easier to process a large stream of incoming posts and comments

2011-07-22T22:07:00.000-07:00

This is a Google Chrome browser extension that enhances the Google+ web app to unlock the potential of its real-time updates and make it much easier to process a large stream of incoming posts and comments.

WARNING: be careful when installing other Google+ extensions. Many if not most extensions use very inefficient methods of handling Google+'s live updates. They may slow down Google+ in general and may interact badly with my extension's refresh model.

Features:
- *Notification status visible at all times*. Browser icon shows badge with number of new notifications.
- *Collapsible items*. As an alternative to muting, this is great if you're not really interested in seeing a post and all its comments right now, but you still want to get back to it at a later time and/or still want to get notifications.
- *Real-time comment count on collapsed items*. You will see either how many comments a post has or how many new ones you haven't seen yet.
- *List-mode option keeps at most one post displayed*. This turns the stream into a dashboard: in one screenful you can see activity on many posts at once and jump back and forth between multiple active comment streams.
- *Mouse-over instant post display*. In list mode, hover the mouse over a collapsed item and see the entire post without clicking.

Click here for Extension

Google+ Profile Images Now Appearing Beside Search Listings

2011-07-22T08:07:00.000-07:00

Google+ has only been out for a few weeks and it is already having major impact on search engine optimization. We shared earlier this week general ideas about how Google+ will impact search, but today we have our first major example. Google has begun to roll out a change to its search engine results page in which an author profile image and name appears at the far right of the individual search listing. Additionally the image and name links directly to the author's Google+ profile page.

This is a dramtic change to Google's classic results page. It completely changes the visual weight of the results. Even though the mashable article is ranked fourth in this search, the addition of the image and name guide your eye to that link. This could have a significant impact on click-through rates for results that include an author image.
How Does This Work?

Thanks to the keen eye of HubSpot resident SEO genius Brian Whalley, we have dicovered that is change works for sites using the "rel=me" tag. Currently these sites include TechCrunch, Mashable, and GigaOm, but this list could soon include your site as well. The "rel=me" tag is a simple tag that a person can use across the web to tell Google that what may appear to be separate pages, are actually all about the same person.

Basically it is a three step process to get this to work for your website:

1. Have a link that includes rel="author me" in your blog article. Such as <a href="http://mashable.com/author/jennifer-van-grove/" rel="author me"> like Jennifer's does.

2. On the linked page (http://mashable.com/author/jennifer-van-grove/), link to the Google+ profile for the author. Include the tag, <a href="https://plus.google.com/100834378485895409468" rel="external nofollow me">AnchorText</a>

3. Now google knows that the author of that article has a specific page.
On her Google+ profile she links back to her Mashable profile in the "Links" area, and indicated that the link was about her via the checkbox when adding a link, so that it's established that both profiles are the same person and reciprocal.

These three steps explain how Google knows to show a certain profile images along side a specific result. To learn more about "rel=me" check out this post on Google's Webmaster Forum.

Marketing Takeaway

Google+ is new but already having a major impact on Google Search. Including profile images of authors along site search listings is a major change to what had traditionally been a non-visual page. If you have a blog you should start using "rel=me" tags right away to have your Google+ profile image appear next to your resutls in an effort to make them more social and better stand out on the page. Keep an eye out for future cahnges to google's search to make it more social.

Google Plus Widget For Blogger ,Wordpress or business Blogs

2011-07-22T02:53:00.000-07:00

Google + so far has been more than ten million users to join, you start to use it? Cut from the current date, Google + function continues to expand development, such as the site of small tools will not launch, can only be a temporary use Google + profile button to tell others their own Google + pages. If you want to advance their own website or blog's sidebar hang website gadget ( Google Plus Widget), so that site visitors through Google + contact you even get to your current situation updates, then just use the Google + Widget service can produce an embedded box, so that others can quickly join your social circle.

Step one :
first their own personal profile page copy Google + Google + ID number, then open Google Plus Widget site, click the Get Widget button.

Step Two :
Click the Basic Settings and then in Google + ID field will own Google + ID number affixed. If necessary, you can set the Widget Width field about the width of the gadget.

Step Three :
Click the top of the Title Settings, in the Title Text field, type "add me" or other you wish to render the text in the title.

Step Four :
Get Code button after click, it will generate Javascript code for Hello! Copy and paste it where you want to show it! (Usually on the site sidebar, but the BSP must support Javascript syntax can).

http://widgetsplus.com/

Intial Version Of Business Profiles for Everyone in next few months.

2011-07-21T18:55:00.000-07:00

Christian Oestlien in his Google+ post mentioned that Business Profiles will be open for every one in next Few Months

A few weeks ago we mentioned we would be doing a test of business profiles and asked people interested to apply. Believe it or not we actually had tens of thousands of businesses, charities, and other organizations apply to take part from all over the world. Many of you have reached out to me personally through Google+, e-mail, chat, and even other Googlers. Thank you. Your response has been humbling.

With so many qualified candidates expressing intense interest in business profiles, we've been thinking hard about how to handle this process. Your enthusiasm obligates us to do more to get businesses involved in Google+ in the right way, and we have to do it faster. As a result, we have refocused a few priorities and we expect to have an initial version of businesses profiles up and running for EVERYONE in the next few months. There may be a tiny handful business profiles that will remain in the meantime solely for the purpose of testing how businesses interact with consumers.

In the meantime, we ask you not to create a business profile using regular profiles on Google+. The platform at the moment is not built for the business use case, and we want to help you build long-term relationships with your customers. Doing it right is worth the wait. We will continue to disable business profiles using regular profiles. We recommend you find a real person who is willing to represent your organization on Google+ using a real profile as him-or-herself.

All of us on the Google+ effort are delighted by your engagement with this project - thank you all for taking the time to apply and offer such incredibly useful feedback. Keep it coming!

Google+ privacy tips from Kaspersky

2011-07-21T09:41:00.000-07:00

Google Plus + fake invites = dangerous malware and infection, says Kaspersky Lab

Kaspersky Lab warns Internet users of targeted attacks on newly launched Google Plus social networking site.

Having only launched at the end of June, Google Plus is growing fast, having already reached more than 10 million* users in its first week of operation. However, as with any social network, over sharing has become the default option, and as such, is a constant concern. Considering Google Plus is new to this arena, it is interesting to note that it has already attracted the attention of cybercriminals. In fact, Kaspersky Lab have identified that cybercriminals are already targeting individuals through friend invites to this network, via emails.

Says Fabio Assolini, Malware Researcher, Global Research and Analysis Team at Kaspersky Lab; “Google Plus is another addition to the social networking world, and while certainly an exciting avenue to explore in this regard, considering the world of Internet cybercrime, Kaspersky Lab have identified that Brazilian cybercriminals have already started sending fake invites with malicious links pointing to malware, specifically Trojan bankers. We recently found one targeting Portuguese speakers and as such, feel that it is crucial to warn users of the potential security threats targeting this social networking site as it is only set to grow.”

The fake invite contains an infected link that when accessed, redirects the user to a very common Brazilian Trojan banker file – a .cmd file hosted at Dropbox. The most interesting thing to note in this message however is another link pointing to a form hosted at Google Docs. The message shows the link as “send the invitation to your friends” but it is actually a fake form created to collect names and e-mail addresses of new victims. Kaspersky Lab has reported this malicious file and the fake Web form to Google for their interest.

Social networks are seen as one of the greatest security threats among businesses, along with various other forms of file sharing. The introduction of new social networking sites creates a haven for cybercriminals to implement virus and threat activity for their own gain; especially as such sites are without a doubt popular among users. In fact, looking at statistics it is evident as to why these sites attract cybercriminals – lots of user. According to Strategy Worx CC**, worldwide Facebook has 750 million users, of which over four million (approximately 4 095 280) originate from South Africa. The same reports also indicates that Twitter has an estimated figure of 277 million worldwide users of which approximately 900 000 users are in SA. Google Plus is fast gaining the attention of users and the nature progress to cybercriminals is evident.

As such, Kaspersky Lab offers the following tips for securing a Google Plus account:

Profile Management – The profile editing section is the brains of the Google Plus’s privacy, providing a versatile interface that allows you to customise how you share each and every nugget of your information. Be sure to use it and make your privacy levels a high priority.
One circle to rule them all – If you’re going to use Google Plus, you need to learn to master the fine art of Circle Management. Circles are the main privacy control centre of Google Plus. They allow you to create groups of friends and associates using a powerful (and cool) user interface that makes it easy to group friends, family and co-workers, and then limit who can see what.
Instant upload - If you access Google Plus using your Android phone, photos and videos you take are automatically uploaded to Google’s cloud via a new tool called Instant Upload. Don’t worry – photos aren’t shared by default, but are stored on a private Picasa Web folder for future sharing. Instant Upload is a fine idea – for a minority of users – but it’s enabled by default and may take a lot of new Google Plus users unaware. To disable Instant Upload, click into the app, Menu/ Settings/ and at the top of the screen uncheck “Instant Upload” for increased protection.

Concludes Assolini; “If you are interested in joining Google Plus, our advice would be to ensure you explore this medium on a secure computer, whist being cautious at all times of pop up blocks and links that insist you re-direct. Furthermore, Kaspersky Lab urge users to not believe in supposed invites received via e-mails. Ensuring a safe social networking experience requires you to be aware that such threats exist, thereby being able to take action the necessary action required and socialising in a secure environment.”

How to Add Google Plus Custom Search Engines in Chrome

2011-07-21T08:19:00.000-07:00

If you're running the Chrome Web browser, you can delve into the settings and add your own custom search engines to the browser. In this case, we added two search engines: one for searching profiles and the other for searching posts.

Here's how:

Click the "Wrench" menu in Chrome.
Click "Preferences"
In the "Basics" section, click "Manage Search Engines" in the "Search" section.

In the first box ("Add a new search engine"), type whatever you want. I chose "Google+."
In the second box ("Keyword"), type the word that you will use to call the search engine from the URL bar. In other words, keep it short and simple. I chose "profiles" for the profile search engine and "posts" for the posts search engine.
In the last box ("URL with % in place of query") use the following:

For the Profile search engine: {google:baseURL}search?q=%s&tbs=prfl:e
For the Posts search engine: {google:baseURL}search?q=site:plus.google.com inurl:posts/* %s

To save the engines, just hit "Enter" (Return) on your keyboard.

Now you can search Google+ from Chrome's address bar. To do so, just type in the engine name you want (e.g. posts or profiles) and hit the spacebar. That will call the engine for use. You can then type in your query and press enter as you would normally when searching Google.

Finally, Google Plus search!

Make multiple calls in Gmail.

2011-07-21T07:39:00.000-07:00

Remember those old multi-line phones with all the buttons across the bottom? That gave you access to more than one line at a time, a feature now available in Google‘s Gmail.

According to the official Gmail Blog, this new multi-call capability will let you put callers on hold with Gmail’s phone service, picking up another call at the same time. Too bad there’s no music on hold to entertain that first caller.

Also imitating conventional phone systems is call waiting, where you receive a notification of an incoming call, and then it’s up to you whether you’re going to answer it or not. The only limitation with this new capability is that you’re only allowed two outgoing calls to physical phones at the same time.

Best of all, U.S. and Canada calls using the Gmail phone and video system will be free through 2011, and all these new multi-line features work with Gmail’s phone, voice and video calls.

Iphone App Must Be Version 1.0.1.1809.

2011-07-20T08:58:00.000-07:00

Via Punit Soni described the Problem With The App:

We discovered an issue with the version of the iPhone Google+ App that was on the App Store. When we launched, the App Store started serving a previous test version of the App which didn't have the stability and fixes that the latest version had. It started serving the correct version a little later. If you downloaded within the first 1 hour 40 mins, you may have downloaded the older test version.

To check:
- Click on the gear icon on the top left of your App's homescreen and look right above the Help button, the version number of the App should be: 1.0.1.1809

- If that is not the version number, then please uninstall and reinstall by clicking on the link below:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google/id447119634?ls=1&mt=8

Google Warns Users They May Be Infected By Malware

2011-07-20T08:52:00.000-07:00

Google has identified a piece of malware that is redirecting unusual search traffic to its servers, prompting the company to warn affected users.

“Recently, we found some unusual search traffic while performing routine maintenance on one of our data centers,” security engineer Damian Menscher wrote on the company’s blog. “After collaborating with security engineers at several companies that were sending this modified traffic, we determined that the computers exhibiting this behavior were infected with a particular strain of malicious software.”

The malware has affected an unspecified number of users, but apparently it was enough for the company to announce that they will be displaying a “prominent notification” at the top of google search results to anybody they believe is infected.

“This particular malware causes infected computers to send traffic to Google through a small number of intermediary servers called ‘proxies.’ We hope that by taking steps to notify users whose traffic is coming through these proxies, we can help them update their antivirus software and remove the infections.”

Google has never used its search engine as a massive malware warning system for users, although it did accidentally mark every website on the web as harmful in 2009.

New improvement to Google+ over the next few days On Privacy Issues.

2011-07-20T07:42:00.000-07:00

Google Plus Update On Privacy Issues Shimrit Ben-Yair Posted In he Blog Post About Public Feedback and Make New Improvements In Privacy In comming Few Days.

"Thanks for all the great feedback everyone! We're paying special attention to privacy-related issues, which is why we're rolling a new improvement to Google+ over the next few days.

Changing your public profile picture or scrapbook photos will no longer generate a public post to the stream, just to the people you have in your circles. So only people in your circles will engage in discussions about the photos you post.

Thanks again and keep the feedback coming!'

Finally Google+ App For Iphone Got Approved

2011-07-19T08:50:00.000-07:00

Description
Google+ for mobile makes sharing the right things with the right people a lot simpler. Huddle lets you send super-fast messages to the people you care about most. And no matter where you are, the stream lets you stay in the loop about what your friends are sharing and where they’re checking in.

Click Here FoR App

Google's New URL Shortner g.co Exclusively For Google Products Only.

2011-07-19T07:11:00.000-07:00

Google has unveiled g.co, a new URL shortener that will link only to Google products and websites.

The search giant already owns goo.gl, a URL shortener it launched in 2009. Unlike g.co, the goo.gl URL shortener can be used for any link on the web via the Google Toolbar.

“We’ll only use g.co to send you to webpages that are owned by Google, and only we can create g.co shortcuts,” Google VP of Consumer Marketing Gary Briggs stated on the company’s blog. “That means you can visit a g.co shortcut confident you will always end up at a page for a Google product or service.”

The tech titan, which has been using the goo.gl URL shortener for its products until now, clearly wants to limit the confusion about where its goo.gl links lead to. Separating Google products from goo.gl should go a long way to solving that problem.

Google isn’t the only company to use .co as its official URL shortener. Twitter obtained t.co last year to improve how links are shared and secured on its platform.

Dell wants to use Google+ Hangouts for customer service

2011-07-19T06:05:00.000-07:00

Dell could soon use Google’s new group video chat platform Google+ Hangouts as an alternative to the traditional customer service call, according to the company’s chairman and CEO, Michael Dell.

Hangouts has been hailed as the next big killer app, and Michael Dell is obviously a fan as well. He’s used the video chat more than a dozen times since he joined Google+ in early July, and this Sunday, he posted the following question on Google+:

I am thinking about hangouts for business. Would you like to be able to connect with your Dell service and sale teams via video directly from Dell.com?

The reaction to his post was overwhelmingly positive, with hundreds of comments agreeing that this would be a good idea for Dell. And the idea is indeed intriguing: Some customer service needs are very similar, so having a service representative talk to a small group of customers at the same time could be more economical than the traditional one-on-one call. Using video could also humanize tech support, and group settings could even initiate self-help between customers.

One should note that Dell’s idea of launching a Hangouts session directly from Dell.com isn’t currently possible; Google+ is still invite-only, and Hangouts can only be started or joined from within the network. Google also hasn’t opened its social network for businesses yet, but the company is currently evaluating how to integrate brands and businesses into Google+.

Customer service has been one of the applications that has made Twitter attractive to companies like Comcast. Having the ability to directly talk to customers via group video chat could be the next step for many of these companies as they look for ways to take customer service beyond the traditional call-center script.

Google+ Is Built Using Tools You Can Use Too Like Closure, Java Servlets, JavaScript, BigTable, Colossus, Quick Turnaround

2011-07-18T18:30:00.000-07:00

Joseph Smarr, former CTO of Plaxo in I'm a technical lead on the Google+ team. Ask me anything, reveals the stack used for building Google+.

Our stack is pretty standard fare for Google apps these days: we use Java servlets for our server code and JavaScript for the browser-side of the UI, largely built with the (open-source) Closure framework, including Closure's JavaScript compiler and template system. A couple nifty tricks we do: we use the HTML5 History API to maintain pretty-looking URLs even though it's an AJAX app (falling back on hash-fragments for older browsers); and we often render our Closure templates server-side so the page renders before any JavaScript is loaded, then the JavaScript finds the right DOM nodes and hooks up event handlers, etc. to make it responsive (as a result, if you're on a slow connection and you click on stuff really fast, you may notice a lag before it does anything, but luckily most people don't run into this in practice). Our backends are built mostly on top of BigTable and Colossus/GFS, and we use a lot of other common Google technologies such as MapReduce (again, like many other Google apps do).

t first I read Clojure, which would have been a real surprise, but it's Closure, a suite of JavaScript tools consisting of a library, compiler, and templates. The compiler is a true compiler for JavaScript for making JavaScript download and run faster. The library is modular and cross-browser JavaScript library. Templates is a server-side templating system that helps you dynamically build reusable HTML and UI elements. It's all open source so you can use it too.

While you don't have Google's stack available to you, you do have some open source options. HBase is replacement for BigTable. Then there's Hadoop MapReduce. Colossus is Google's next generation file system, a replacement for GFS. Since we don't know much about Colossus, it's hard to say what a suitable replacement would be. There's the Hadoop distributed file system HDFS. And if you are looking for some of the cloud like infrastructure glue there's OpenStack (which also has storage system).

Google probably uses a custom Java servlet container, but the choice here doesn't matter that much. Most of the work will be spawned in parallel and performed on other servers implemented in C++, Java, or Python.

Whereas most communication with Google is non-existent, the Google+ development team is noticeably more responsive, turning out visible improvements quickly and consistently. Joseph tells us why: We put extra emphasis on engineering speed/agility--we try to release code updates on a daily basis while still keeping quality/stability/latency as high as you'd expect from google. This helps us move fast and respond quickly to user feedback. We try to do a full push (almost) every day, and we sometimes sneak in patch releases too if needed. But there are humans in the loop, it's not a "auto-push if all tests pass" situation or anything like that.

For Google+'s most innovative feature, video conferencing with Hangouts, GigaOM has a good article on that stack, which is based on Announcing Google+ Hangouts, written by Tech Lead Justin Uberti. Unlike Skype, which runs on a cost effective P2P model, Hangouts is completely hosted by Google. This must cost a staggering amount of money. You are on your own here. Nobody can replace the bandwidth being donated by the Google fairy.

That's Google in a box. Then again, an ex-Googler thinks you can do better using MessagePack, JSON, Hadoop, jQuery, and MongoDB. If you can do better for a world wide base of a billion users is a completely different question.