Thing #49: Google+

Welcome back to the regularly scheduled Nebraska Learns 2.0 monthly thing. All of us involved hoped everyone had a great time with CPD23 and are ready to get back into the swing of the monthly program.
We’ve talked about social networks in the past and we’ve talked about Google services in the past. What we’ve not yet talked about is a Google social network service. Why not? Well, for the most part there wasn’t one worthy of discussion. But now, just maybe, for Google, the third time’s the charm. This month, let’s take a look at Google+.
As you can probably guess there’s a lot to Google+. In this post I’ll be covering the major features and point out some useful tips. However, I encourage you to explore for a while before writing up your review.

Signing up and logging in

First you need to head over to http://plus.google.com/ and sign up. Originally you did need an invite but that isn’t the case any longer. (The previous invite link is an actual invite should for some reason Google ask that you have one even though it shouldn’t.)
Once you’re set up and logged in the first thing you should do is head over to your profile page (click on your name in upper right corner and select Profile) and fill in as much as you’re comfortable with. Feel free to take a look at my Google+ profile for an example.
Here’s something very important: One of the biggest issues with the launch of Google+ was Google’s real names policy which is currently in effect. Simply put, you can’t use a pseudonym, you must use the name you’re commonly known by. It has been reported that Google will be relaxing this rule in the future but it hasn’t happened as of early November.
Once you’re done filling in your profile use the navigation bar at the top to get to Circles.

Circles

Circles are both intuitive and somewhat difficult to explain. However I’ve found that once you get the hang of them you’ll wonder where they’ve been all your social web life.
Everyone you follow on Google+ needs to be placed into a circle. The the first thing you need to do is find someone to follow. Use the person search box in the upper right (it says “type a name” and enter “Michael Sauers”. You should get several results but I’m the one standing in front of a lot of books. Grab my icon and drag it down to the circle on the bottom half of the screen that says “Drop contacts here to create a new circle”.
Once you’ve done that click the “Create circle” link and name it Librarians and click the blue Create circle button. Now that the circle has been created you can find other people and drag them onto that circle. You’re welcome to create as many circles as you want. For example, I have circles for librarians, Nebraskans, family, Doctor Who fans, and more. Anyone you follow can be in more than one circle. So, if I follow you and you’re a librarian in Nebraska, you’re in both my librarians and Nebraskans circles.
One important thing to note is that unless you specifically make a circle public, people in your circles know you’re following them but don’t know the name of the circle you’ve put them in. So, for example, you can have a circle named “people who say interesting things but whom I find annoying”. As long as you don’t make that circle public, they’ll never know.

To delete a circle, right click on it and select delete. You can also rearrange your circles via drag and drop.
Why circles? Two reasons. First it can allow you to view just the posts from those in a particular circle. And second, and more importantly, you can easily choose to share an item with just people within a particular circle. (I’ll be talking about both of these later in this post.)

Your Stream

Now let’s click the home button in the navigation bar to get to your stream.

Your stream is where new items posted by the people in your circles are displayed. New items are displayed at the top with older items moving down the page as new content arrives.
On any particular item you can click on the poster’s name to get to their profile or click on the title to go to the original content source (assuming they’re posting a link to another item.) The time/date of the post will also be displayed along with information about who the post was shared with. Below each item you can +1 it, comment on it, or re-share it (assuming the original poster has not limited resharing).
As people comment on a post, those comments will automatically appear beneath the original content, new posts at the bottom.
If you look in the upper-right corner of a post you’ll see a gray triangle. Click this to get options to report abuse, block this person, and mute the post (for when you’re tired of receiving updates for a particular post.)
Over in the left sidebar is a list of your circles. Click on the name of a circle to see just the posts from the people in that circle. (Click the home button in the navigation bar to get back to your full stream.) Near the bottom of your circles list is “Incoming”. Clicking this will display the posts from people who are following you (i.e. you’re in one of their circles) but you are not following (i.e. they’re not in any of your circles.) This is a great way to check out people who you don’t know but follow you to see if you’d like to follow them back.
At the bottom of that list is Notifications. I’ll be covering that later in this lesson.

Sharing

To share new content click on “Share what’s new…” at the top of your stream. A box will appear into which you can enter any text you wish.

If you also (or instead) want to share a link to some other content, click the link icon and paste in your link. (There are also icons for sharing videos and photos, along with adding your physical location to a post.) As you add links to your post, part of that content, usually a graphic and some of the text, will be pulled into your post. (Shared YouTube videos will automatically be embedded into your post.) If more than one graphic appears on the linked page you can choose which graphic is used. You can also remove the graphic and/or remove the text that’s been pulled in.

Next you need to decide with whom to share your post. The default it to make the post public. If you do make it public, anyone who follows you will receive it in their stream, along with anyone who looks at your public profile, and it will appear as a result for an appropriate search. However, you don’t have to make things public.

To not make a post public, make sure that Public does not appear. (If it’s already there, click the X to remove it.) Then choose your list of whom to share this post with by clicking +Add more people.
When it comes to choosing who to share with, you’ve got a lot of options.

• Public (as already described)
• Your Circles: Share with everyone in all of your circles.
• Extended Circles: Share with everyone in all of your circles and everyone in all of their circles.
• Individual Circles. Choose any and all circles you wish to share this with.
• A particular person: Start typing a name of someone that has a Google+ account and you can share specifically with them whether they’re already in one of your circles or not.

I tend to make most of my posts public but in some cases I will share with a particular circle. For example, I might just want to post something that only those in my Family circle should see.
When you’re all done, click the green Share button to finalize your post.
Once you’ve posted something you can click on the gray triangle in the posts upper-right corner to get the ability to edit, delete, link to (the URL specific to this post), Disable comments, and Lock the post (keep others from resharing it).

Resharing

Assuming the original poster has not locked their post, each post will give you the ability to reshare it. To do this, just click the Share link at the bottom of the post and a new post will be created for you. Just add any additional text you wish, choose who to share it with, and click the Share button to post it.

Please keep in mind (and Google+ will remind you of this) that sometimes someone has shared something with a small group of people and did not necessarily want you to reshare it publicly. So please be aware of what and with whom you’re resharing.

Notifications

As people comment and reshare your posts, along with commenting on and resharing the posts of others that you have commented on or reshared, Google+ provides notifications of such activity. These notifications can be found in two places.
The first, and the one I use rarely, is the notifications link in the left-sidebar. Clicking on this will open a whole page of your notifications so as to look like your stream. Newer updates are at the top of the page, just like the stream.

The other option which I use constantly is through the notification icon in the black Google toolbar at the top of the page. As new notifications come in, the icon turns red and tells you how many notifications are awaiting you. (It stops updating at “9+”.) Clicking on this icon will open a window showing you a condensed list of notifications, each of which you can click to open and see the full content. I use this one more often since it appears on all Google sites (like Google Reader and GMail) and not just while I’m looking at Google+.

Searching Google+

Let’s say you’re interested in Carhenge. Find the search box at the top of the screen, enter carhenge and press enter. What you’ll see next is a list of public posts that mention Carhenge. Now lets say that you want to save this search for later viewing for new content. Click the Save this search button, located beneath the search box. Over in the left sidebar you’ll now see carhenge listed in red. Now, whenever you want to redo this search, just click on the link in the left sidebar.

Photos

I must admit that I’ve not personally played much with the photo features of Google+ since I’m very locked in to Flickr. However, what I have seen I’ve been very impressed with and the reviews from professional photographers have been wonderful.
The first interesting thing about photos in Google+ is the lightbox feature. Find a post in which someone has specifically shared a photo (like this one) and click on the photo. Here’s what you’ll get:

Photo: Trey Ratcliff (Someone you should follow!)
As you can see, the photo is beautifully displayed on a dark background and commenting is embedded to the right of the photo.
The other part of Google+ photos I’m impressed with is how it works with the G+ mobile app. I’ve got this installed on my phone and every time I take a photo I’ve allowed the app to automatically upload a copy of that photo into a private area of my Google+ account. Instant backups! (This is something you must turn on. It is off by default.)
If you want to play around more with photos in Google+ click the photo icon in the navigation bar. That screen will be broken down into several sections: Photos from your circles, Photos from your phone (if you’ve turned that on), Photos of you, Photos from your posts, and your albums. If you’re interested in sharing photography online, be sure to spend some time here.

Hangouts

Hangouts are the single coolest feature (in my opinion) of Google+ but I must admit that I’ve not yet actually had a chance to try it out. (Mainly due to the need to install a plugin to get it to work that I’ve not yet been able to install at work.)
Simply put, hangouts are video chat but way cooler than Skype. Best thing to do here is let this video explain it.

Google Reader Integration

On November 1st, users of Google Reader may have noticed that most of the familiar sharing and following features disappeared, replaced by Google +1 button. For better or worse if you want to share something from Google Reader, Google wants you to share it via Google+.
I’ve written a separate blog post about sharing in Google Reader and if you’re a Google Reader user I highly suggest you take a look at it. (It’s not very long.)

Looking for a demo?

On November 16th I’ll be doing a free live Webinar on Google+ for the Georgia Library Association. Anyone is welcome to register and attend. Assuming the recording is available before the end of the month I’ll try to remember to post it here.

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So, that’s an overview of Google+. I feel like I’ve left a lot out but like any social network, it’s sometimes best to just get the basics and then figure out how it works best for you.

Assignment

1. Sign up for Google+ if you haven’t already.
2. Fill in your profile as much as you’re comfortable with. (Keep in mind Google’s real name policy.)
3. Find some people to follow and create a circle or two.
4. Try sharing some items both publicly and to particular circles.
5. Blog your thoughts about Google+. Be sure to include a link to your Google+ profile.

Bonus items:

1. Upload some photos, create and share a photo set.
2. If you’re a Google Reader user experiment with the new sharing features.
3. Start a public hangout and see who shows up.
4. If you have a smart phone install the Google+ app and let us know what you think of it.
5. Check out the gaming section. (I’ll leave you to find that on your own.)