CircleCount helps you better understand Google+

2012-03-07 14:14:51 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 2 +1s)

Google+ Tips: A Post Can Be Anything
The medium is the message. Before Google+ we divided our interactions into email, blog posts, tweets status updates, check ins, and photo shares. Before the Internet we communicated via notes, memos, letters (business and personal), vacation postcards and telegrams; we recorded our private moments in journals and scrapbooks.

Each medium shapes the message. It signals a mood and identifies the audience. The availability of certain tools encourages us to observe and write and share what we otherwise might not. Would I take photographs of my lunch without an app to track the restaurants I visited? Individually they seem a bit silly. Taken as a whole, they form a timeline of my life and show the patterns of my life experiences.

Google+ integrates all these experiences. We do not have to bring up different apps to do different things. By... more »

2012-01-26 13:18:47 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Data Liberation: Doc for Takeout
This is a great addition to the takeout menu. I hope Gmail will be next.
via @Noam Gordon

2011-12-13 23:10:45 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 0 +1s)

The quality of conversations on Google+ is something we take very seriously, so we’re happy to announce that we've finished rolling out our new comment spam moderation system.

Now, if we identify a possibly spammy comment on your post, we'll immediately mark it for your review. During this time:

- Other viewers won't see the comment at all.
- You'll see it grayed out, with the option to remove or restore -- both of which help train our systems.
- The commenter won't notice any difference (unless their comments get removed, of course).

Remember, if you see spam, flag it! Each flag helps train our systems to be smarter and faster in the future.

Let us know what you think, and please keep the feedback coming!

#googleplusupdate
#seasonforshipping

Some of the people who made this possible: +Saurabh Sharma+... more »

2011-12-08 12:48:15 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 0 +1s)

+Sanjay Ghemawat, +Simon Tong, and I have been collaborating on ways to improve people suggestions in Google+, and today we're rolling out some of our early work in this area.

Now when you add someone to your circles from notifications, Google+ will suggest others that you may find interesting based on the person you just added. These suggestions are automatically generated by algorithms that find people that are similar to the person you just added.

We're just getting started, so please let us know what you think in the comments. We'll be rolling out these sorts of suggestions to other parts of the product over the next few months.

2011-11-23 15:04:59 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

John Fanavans: Monetizing Google+ Series
How can you resist a guy who starts off, "I'm sick of people trying to figure out how to make money on here." I can't. Hell! I'm even sick of the word "monetize". I saw a TV commercial recently where every time this guy glances at a coworker or acquaintance, his "friends'" heads turn into $100 bills. Because that's how some people see their social networks--as people to cash in on. I'm sure I could go off on a tangental rant on this philosophy of greed and the reaction to it which seems to be one of the driving forces of OWS.

Instead, I'll introduce the series. It's good. And it actually is about making money on Google+. But not by being smarmy. By being yourself, talking about what you are most passionate about, and building real relationships with your customers. Go read... more »

2011-11-18 13:46:23 (2 comments, 3 reshares, 3 +1s)

Twitter and Google+: In Asymmetrical Relationships Readers are a Plus
Not everyone is a content producer. Just because you subscribe to a newspaper doesn't mean you want to be a journalist. Sometimes you just want to read the news. It's okay to be a reader.

The early adopters on Google+ were power users. When tech writers like +Robert Scoble or +Mike Elgan focus on how to get the most out of a platform, they mean how to get the most attention for your brand, how to build and maintain an audience, how to dominate the Google+ market space. By nature they are competitive and aggressive and they speak to those who see Google+ as an unexplored territory to conquer.

Some of us don't care about making the biggest ripple. One joy in Google+ is that our level of interaction is ours to control. Now that Pages have been implemented, I know people who have signed up for... more »

2011-11-16 14:17:02 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 0 +1s)

For those times when you really do mean [thanksgivin] and not [Thanksgiving], we've introduced a new way for you to tell Google when you want to search using your exact search terms--no autocorrect, no synonyms, no personalization. Just what you type in the search box. Literally. The Verbatim search tool can now be found under “More search tools” on the left-hand side of the search page. Read more about it on our Inside Search blog http://goo.gl/x1ZYU

2011-11-16 14:11:51 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Verify Your Google+ Brand Page with Google
Let Google know your are the real you on Google+. Our step-by-step pictorial guid shows you how to do it, using Google's approved method.

2011-11-14 13:58:23 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 6 +1s)

G+ Tips: Social Aspects of Sharing
After the implementation of Pages last week, I was reading through comments on the announcement and came across a couple of complaints from people who had multiple instances of the same business circles post shared with them over and over again. Isn't this like complaining that on the day of a major tragedy that all the newspapers carry the same headline? The whole point of something going viral is that everybody is talking about it.

Everyone Has a Different Take
Do I want Google+ to filter out a link if I've already seen it? No! Just because two people (or ten) share the same video with me doesn't mean I don't want to see all their shares. The kind of people I follow write an introduction or commentary on the stuff they share. That's why I follow them. So it doesn't matter if they share the same link because the... more »

2011-11-12 19:13:33 (0 comments, 4 reshares, 0 +1s)

Posted by +Toby Stein on behalf of the Pages team:

Correction: space between images is 15px, not 25px as stated in the image

Your profile picture and scrapbook photos (the 5 that appear across the top of your page) are key to making a good first impression on visitors to your page. I talked to Googlers Devin Ivester and Barbara Velos, and put together some tips for you!
1. The possibilities are endless!
Consider your scrapbook photos a billboard for your business, an opportunity to express what you and your team are all about.
Present your products, locations, or iconic images like +Google+
Create a panorama, like +Burberry
Or, introduce your team, like +Fox News
Aim for colorful and detailed, like +Google for Nonprofits
Or clean and simple, like our page

2. These photos do not need to remain static!
... more »

2011-11-11 16:09:02 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Today's #ChatTip: Google+ synchronizes all of your blocked contacts across all Google properties. If you have contacts blocked in any Google products such as Google Reader, these contacts will now show up as blocked in your Chat list as well. Read the full scoop here: http://goo.gl/ZRtTX

And yes, that means that if it simply seems that some of your Contacts are now consistently showing as offline, they might not be hiding from you -- you might have blocked them somewhere else, like Google+. If when unblocking someone in Chat you've noticed they are consistently re-blocked, this is also likely because they're still blocked elsewhere.

What can you do about it?
You need to take a quick step from your Google+ Circles page. When you're there, in the upper right you'll see "more actions" > "view blocked". Remove the user from... more »

2011-11-11 13:48:40 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

G+ Tips: Set Up a Page to Read Brands
If you want to keep business page updates from flooding your stream but you still want to follow them, set up your own Page just for reading. I did this for news brands (I used the category "Other") because news brands update constantly and they have content I want to read. I just don't want to read it with my personal correspondence.

Setting up a News page means I get to choose when I want to read the news feeds and gives me a place where I can see all the news in one place.

I could do the same thing with circles but there are two downsides.
* Putting the brands in my Read circle means their updates inundate my Home stream.
* Subscribing to a brand with my personal account means that I've given the brand permission to comment on my stream. Good brands won't spam me and I can always block the ones... more »

2011-11-08 22:29:31 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 1 +1s)

5 Cool Tips You Should Know About Google+ Pages

1. You Can +1 a Page to Show Support or Add Them to Your Circles

We know you love some brands and businesses. Others you may want to show a quick note of support, but not see all their updates. So just drop a little +1 and keep going, or add a page to any circle you want. You're in control.

2. No Google+ Page Can Follow You Until You Follow Them

We want Google+ to be a place you love to share. Pages cannot circle you until you follow them first. Of course, if you are in their circles, they can share great deals, exclusive coupons, product tips and hangouts, but the relationship is yours to start.

3. In Fact, Google+ Pages Can't Even Mention You Unless You're Connected

That's right. The +Google+ page can't even say your name unless you're... more »

2011-11-08 13:55:56 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

G+ Tips: Use Pages to Replace Family and Other Opt-In Circles
Having trouble separating your public life from your personal life on Google+? If you write publicly and profusely about tech (for example), your family who is interested only in your personal posts has no way to turn off the tech posts flooding their home streams.

Circles provide a way for us to categorize our posts by topic but our subscribers still receive all our public content, even if they are only interested in one of your content circles. Most of our friends and family like to know what we're thinking about despite the topic -- others not so much. In the past, I've suggested that the family members not interested in reading your professional posts not follow you. They will still receive notifications any messages you address them by name. For sending messages or sharing posts (same thing), circles are just a... more »