Home Business & Other Google Plus First Look: a tip-packed, comprehensive look at Google+

Google Plus First Look: a tip-packed, comprehensive look at Google+

By Ralph Roberts
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About this book
Publication date:
November 2011
Publisher
Packt
Pages
208
ISBN
9781849685344

 

Chapter 1. Joining Plus and What to Do First

Ever wish you could completely start over? Begin an entirely new online life? Well, as far as social media goes, that time is now.

And the time could not be better! Everything from interaction with your friends, to communications with coworkers and clients, professional contacts and development, meeting those who share your hobbies, and so much more now depends on social networking. Google+ is the fastest growing and, arguably, the easiest to learn.

If you're already using Facebook, for example, then one of the big attractions of Plus is starting out fresh. Creating your friends lists in a controllable manner, making online interaction more manageable, and enjoying the power of a completely new software. All free, by the way.

Google+ or (as most of us seem to be calling it) Google Plus gives us all of the above and more.

This chapter introduces that excitement and shows how to join Plus. It also gives you the kind of painless initial setup that guarantees a successful and fun-filled experience for years to come.

So let's:

  • Learn what Google Plus is and does

  • Take a look at the advantages of Plus

  • See how to join

  • Discuss privacy concerns

  • Set up our profiles

  • And above all, learn just why Google+ is the place to be!

We begin with just exactly what Google Plus is.

What is Plus?

Google Plus (or Google+) is a brand-new social media network using all the latest in web software.

Google is one of the giants on the Internet, dominant in search engines and other areas, but was never the type of all-inclusive social media that Plus aims to be (which has been most recently ruled by Facebook). Many members, as well as myself, feel Plus is a game changer.

Plus is not Google's first attempt at social networking (we'll be nice and not mention Buzz and Wave). However, they have had successes. Their orkut network, popular in Europe, has over 15 million members. And, of course, YouTube—the master of video sites—is Google's.

For those of us keeping score at home, ebizmba.com (a business-oriented site), listed in the top fifteen social media networks for August, 2011. Not surprisingly, Facebook (with over 700 million users) was the leader. Twitter was second. Myspace, once the king, has fallen to fourth.

Google Plus—which only started in June, 2011, and is still in an early growth stage—was already up to 6th with over 32 million members as I started this book. Now it's around 50 million. And those members have posted over a billion items! I've added a fair share of that myself.

So, yes, Plus looks like it's very popular and can continue its fast growth (that's pretty much an understatement, I believe). Here's what the entry page looks like (https://plus.google.com):

We'll discuss the procedure for joining Plus in just a moment. As we prep this book for publication, Plus is now open for the public, so invitations (as was true during the beta programs) are no longer required. Just join. It's completely free.

Plus provides several advantages that ensure rapid growth aside from all the new designs and powerful web software. Not least of which is its close integration with other Google products, especially Gmail.

Gmail is Google's free e-mail service that already has over 200 million users worldwide. Plus runs (at least partially) on top of the Gmail system. When I check my Gmail, in the upper-right corner it tells me how many Plus notifications are waiting for me, as shown in the following screenshot. A click opens those up.

I also get notifications in e-mails, as shown in the following screenshot:

Additionally, there's a link to your Plus page in the upper-left corner of Gmail:

The close integration of Google+ with Gmail (and other Google products, as we see in this book) makes using Plus easier and more powerful. There are also apps for the popular type of smartphones (such as My Droid 2) that let us keep track and interact no matter where we might be.

Back to what Plus is. Social media runs the gamut from terse 140-character messages like Twitter to the vastness of Facebook (current leader after supplanting MySpace and now, obviously, a target in its own right).

Like Facebook, Google+ falls more toward the"do everything for you" end. Unlike Facebook, Plus is not stuck with a lot of legacy code. Plus is (as already stated) an up-to-date, innovative, and new social network built from the ground up and designed for both great power and ease-of-use.

Features of Plus

We introduced some of the major features in the Preface and showed them in the illustration of the main Plus entry screen (the first image in this chapter). However, let's review the major ones:

  • Circles: The hot new concept that, by itself, puts Plus above all other social media networks. By the use of Circles (you can have as many as you like), you can categorize friends, family, acquaintances, people at work, schoolmates, members of the hiking club, or any of the many other groupings in your life. Takes all the confusion out of social interaction! We'll run around in ... err... circles in the next chapter. The introduction to Circles from the Plus website is shown in the following screenshot:

  • Stream: A newsfeed that is somewhat similar to Facebook's, but much more controllable because you can select which circle to see posts from, and so on.

  • Hangouts: A video chat service where, using a cheap USB camera, you can both see and talk to your friends. The following screenshot shows how Plus introduces it on the Plus site:

  • Chat : Standard text chats and a feature called Messenger that allows us to gather several friends together for a group chat from our smartphones.

There are other nice features, all of which we'll master in this book. For example, photos and videos (both yours and of the people in your circles post) are easy to upload and share.

If you have a smartphone with the Google Plus app on it (free from the Plus site), photos on the phone automatically upload to your private photo albums. Share what you wish, when you wish. No one else can see them until you do. This feature is called Instant Upload. For those concerned with privacy and if this action bothers them, I'll show you how to turn that feature off later in the book (it's in the settings of the official Google+ app).

Additional features are under development, such as Games and Questions. If they appear before I've finished this book, then we will see what they do.

Breaking news: Wow, the wait for Games was not all that long, they are here now! Literally overnight from when I wrote the preceding paragraph. We'll cover Games later in this book:

The Games icon is already in place now on the Google+ control bar, as shown in the following screenshot:

Furthermore, later in this book is a chapter on how to promote on Plus. Promotion is a very exciting and important concept. We all have something we want others to know, whether it is only the fact that we are jolly good fellows and fun to know or that we make our living by selling products, or services, or by pushing for a good cause—for whatever reason, promotion is important and Plus makes it easy.

Often when we meet someone new, one of the first questions they ask is"What do you do for a living?" Soon enough, you might answer,"I post stuff on Google Plus."

The following is an example where I share this breaking news with all the people who have me in their circles to make sure they know I'm writing a book about Plus (which will result, we would hope) in increased book sales.

This is how I make my living, got to keep my computers fed. By the way, thank you for buying this book, truly appreciated.

Continuing, Vic Gundotra—Senior Vice President for Social at Google—in an interview published by Mashable (mashable.com) says Google+ is"designed to be an improvement to all of Google."

Vic goes on to add that this is why the Google's navigation bar on the main Google search page (as shown in the following screenshot) now shows a link to Plus and any notifications you might have waiting (a white number in a small red box, just click on it).

Now we're beginning to get a feeling of what Plus is (and there will be much more coming). The next question becomes why would we want to join?

 

What is Plus?


Google Plus (or Google+) is a brand-new social media network using all the latest in web software.

Google is one of the giants on the Internet, dominant in search engines and other areas, but was never the type of all-inclusive social media that Plus aims to be (which has been most recently ruled by Facebook). Many members, as well as myself, feel Plus is a game changer.

Plus is not Google's first attempt at social networking (we'll be nice and not mention Buzz and Wave). However, they have had successes. Their orkut network, popular in Europe, has over 15 million members. And, of course, YouTube—the master of video sites—is Google's.

For those of us keeping score at home, ebizmba.com (a business-oriented site), listed in the top fifteen social media networks for August, 2011. Not surprisingly, Facebook (with over 700 million users) was the leader. Twitter was second. Myspace, once the king, has fallen to fourth.

Google Plus—which only started in June, 2011, and is still in an early growth stage—was already up to 6th with over 32 million members as I started this book. Now it's around 50 million. And those members have posted over a billion items! I've added a fair share of that myself.

So, yes, Plus looks like it's very popular and can continue its fast growth (that's pretty much an understatement, I believe). Here's what the entry page looks like (https://plus.google.com):

We'll discuss the procedure for joining Plus in just a moment. As we prep this book for publication, Plus is now open for the public, so invitations (as was true during the beta programs) are no longer required. Just join. It's completely free.

Plus provides several advantages that ensure rapid growth aside from all the new designs and powerful web software. Not least of which is its close integration with other Google products, especially Gmail.

Gmail is Google's free e-mail service that already has over 200 million users worldwide. Plus runs (at least partially) on top of the Gmail system. When I check my Gmail, in the upper-right corner it tells me how many Plus notifications are waiting for me, as shown in the following screenshot. A click opens those up.

I also get notifications in e-mails, as shown in the following screenshot:

Additionally, there's a link to your Plus page in the upper-left corner of Gmail:

The close integration of Google+ with Gmail (and other Google products, as we see in this book) makes using Plus easier and more powerful. There are also apps for the popular type of smartphones (such as My Droid 2) that let us keep track and interact no matter where we might be.

Back to what Plus is. Social media runs the gamut from terse 140-character messages like Twitter to the vastness of Facebook (current leader after supplanting MySpace and now, obviously, a target in its own right).

Like Facebook, Google+ falls more toward the"do everything for you" end. Unlike Facebook, Plus is not stuck with a lot of legacy code. Plus is (as already stated) an up-to-date, innovative, and new social network built from the ground up and designed for both great power and ease-of-use.

Features of Plus

We introduced some of the major features in the Preface and showed them in the illustration of the main Plus entry screen (the first image in this chapter). However, let's review the major ones:

  • Circles: The hot new concept that, by itself, puts Plus above all other social media networks. By the use of Circles (you can have as many as you like), you can categorize friends, family, acquaintances, people at work, schoolmates, members of the hiking club, or any of the many other groupings in your life. Takes all the confusion out of social interaction! We'll run around in ... err... circles in the next chapter. The introduction to Circles from the Plus website is shown in the following screenshot:

  • Stream: A newsfeed that is somewhat similar to Facebook's, but much more controllable because you can select which circle to see posts from, and so on.

  • Hangouts: A video chat service where, using a cheap USB camera, you can both see and talk to your friends. The following screenshot shows how Plus introduces it on the Plus site:

  • Chat : Standard text chats and a feature called Messenger that allows us to gather several friends together for a group chat from our smartphones.

There are other nice features, all of which we'll master in this book. For example, photos and videos (both yours and of the people in your circles post) are easy to upload and share.

If you have a smartphone with the Google Plus app on it (free from the Plus site), photos on the phone automatically upload to your private photo albums. Share what you wish, when you wish. No one else can see them until you do. This feature is called Instant Upload. For those concerned with privacy and if this action bothers them, I'll show you how to turn that feature off later in the book (it's in the settings of the official Google+ app).

Additional features are under development, such as Games and Questions. If they appear before I've finished this book, then we will see what they do.

Breaking news: Wow, the wait for Games was not all that long, they are here now! Literally overnight from when I wrote the preceding paragraph. We'll cover Games later in this book:

The Games icon is already in place now on the Google+ control bar, as shown in the following screenshot:

Furthermore, later in this book is a chapter on how to promote on Plus. Promotion is a very exciting and important concept. We all have something we want others to know, whether it is only the fact that we are jolly good fellows and fun to know or that we make our living by selling products, or services, or by pushing for a good cause—for whatever reason, promotion is important and Plus makes it easy.

Often when we meet someone new, one of the first questions they ask is"What do you do for a living?" Soon enough, you might answer,"I post stuff on Google Plus."

The following is an example where I share this breaking news with all the people who have me in their circles to make sure they know I'm writing a book about Plus (which will result, we would hope) in increased book sales.

This is how I make my living, got to keep my computers fed. By the way, thank you for buying this book, truly appreciated.

Continuing, Vic Gundotra—Senior Vice President for Social at Google—in an interview published by Mashable (mashable.com) says Google+ is"designed to be an improvement to all of Google."

Vic goes on to add that this is why the Google's navigation bar on the main Google search page (as shown in the following screenshot) now shows a link to Plus and any notifications you might have waiting (a white number in a small red box, just click on it).

Now we're beginning to get a feeling of what Plus is (and there will be much more coming). The next question becomes why would we want to join?

 

Why join Google Plus?


The rationale for beginning any new activity fall in two categories, and social media's no exception.

First, we have the technical. How does this benefit me? Is it easy to upload photos and videos? To make comments? To control which people I interact with? Does it make live chats with my friends easier? And so on and so forth.

The good news is that the answer to all of the above questions is 'yes'. The preceding section introduced us to that and throughout the rest of this book we will be learning and using all those neat features on Google Plus.

However, as exciting and interesting as Plus makes them, technical goodies are not enough. We need the second category to close the deal.

These are of the heart reasons, because life is so much more than just colorful graphics on a computer screen.

Ask yourself the following questions:

  • Is using Plus exciting?

  • Do I find satisfaction and enjoyment in the ways it allows me to interact with people?

  • Will my friends enjoy it and want to be on it with me?

  • Above all, is it a satisfying activity I enjoy and which meets my needs on many levels—some of which I may not even know exist or that I've been missing input on?

That answer is also a resounding yes! We will see and experience examples throughout, but here are a few examples of how social media in general, and Plus in particular, fulfills human needs. These can be, and I hope will be, benefits received from joining and participating on Google Plus. While the same applies to other social media (hence their great popularity), Plus makes these things even easier.

Here are a few of those reasons to get us started:

  1. 1. Social contacts: You could hang out at a local bar, meet three drunks and eat stale peanuts. Or from your own comfy chair, in the warm light of your own computer screen, you can eat fresh peanuts while meeting dozens or even hundreds of interesting people from all over the world every evening. Seriously, the more people we interact with, the more interesting life becomes. Being social generates warmth and a sense of wellbeing in our lives.

  2. 2. Groups: Broaden your horizons. Be a part of all sorts of groups and meet all levels of folks. Control what groups you're conversing with and when. That's what the Circles feature is all about.

  3. 3. Cheap: Did I mention it was free? Well, it's free.

  4. 4. Entertaining: When you get right down to it, people (all of us) like people. Interesting characters, wise cracks, kindred spirits, tellers of truly funny jokes and wise sayings, and ever so many more, all of which Plus streams by for our enjoyment.

  5. 5. Community: A community is a (large or small) grouping of people with a common interest. Perhaps they live in the same geographic location, or share the same political viewpoint, or love the same sports team. Plus lets you join together with like-minded friends for discussion, to follow events, entertainment, and all the other good stuff members of communities give each other.

  6. 6. Connection: Keep in touch daily, weekly, or whatever interval pleases you with friends, acquaintances, family, and more. They could live down the street or on another continent, but you can remain close to them on your computer or smartphone.

  7. 7. Sharing: Photos, videos, recipes, what Junior did and how darn cute it was, and a million other things can all be shared with friends, fellow workers, and many others, in any mix of your Circles.

  8. 8. Family: Communicating, supporting, and loving our family and other relatives keeps us together, and is one of the most rewarding things we can do. Post a message to mom tonight.

  9. 9. Career: Keeping up with co-workers, others in your vocation or profession, or even finding employment if you're between jobs, all of it is possible on Plus.

  10. 10. Promotion: Marketing your company, your talents, and more is another great way to use social media like Plus (and we'll show you how to do it the right way).

  11. 11. Hobbies and Interests: Groups of folks and individual friends who share your hobby and other interests are easy to find and communicate with on Plus.

  12. 12. Personal Improvement: Above all, as we interact and learn, we grow. Plus keeps your mind agile and interested.

To sum up this sampling of reasons to join this great social media network, consider the following screenshot from the Plus site:

See the red circle with all the arrows pointing to it? Yes, this network might very well be named +You instead of Google+.

Okay, ready to join? Good, let's see how.

 

How to join Plus


First, you need a Google account, which is free, gives you Gmail (Google's e-mail service), and access to a growing number of Google applications on the web. Having Gmail is essential because of the integration between it and Plus for sending you notifications of posts and other events.

Here's the way you get all that.

Getting a Google Account

If you do not have a Google account yet, it's simple enough to get one. Free, of course.

Note

Google currently encourages you to use your real name on Plus, so you'll need to register that way (they have been deleting Plus accounts which do not meet this criteria). We'll discuss privacy concerns and this controversial policy later in this chapter and explain more about real names, pro and con.

To register, carry out the following steps:

  1. 1. Browse to https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount (the sign-up page is as shown in the following screenshot).

  2. 2. Fill out the form to create your account and you are good to go. Again, it's free.

Here's how the registration page looks:

Complete the application (using your real name). For example, my Gmail address is. If your name is Bob Smith, you might wind up with or something similar. Don't worry. The Plus application system guides you through choosing your real name (which is required).

Once you have a Google account, which includes a Gmail account (like mine, as follows) take a little time to explore Gmail and the other Google apps that are now yours (some of which we see listed on the top line in the following screenshot):

Calendar, for example, is a sophisticated appointments calendar easily shared with others. My wife and I use this daily. All our appointments are available not only on our computers, but also on our Droids. If one of us makes a change, then it shows up on the other's phone; a great and convenient way to sync our lives and activities. The other apps are quite useful too.

Of course, our book is not about Gmail or the many Google apps opened to us by having a Google account.

However, Gmail is important as it serves as one of our gateways into Google Plus. Note the +Ralph menu item in the extreme upper-left corner, as shown in the preceding screenshot. Once you've joined Plus, your Gmail will have that too. Clicking on it takes you to your Plus home page, and there is a small box over on the far right of the menu bar that is red, if you have notifications, with the numbers of items to look. If there are no pending notifications, the box is gray.

However, more than just a handy link, Gmail lets us interact with Plus right in our e-mails. Let's take, as an example, the notification I just received, as shown in the following screenshot:

Plus notifies me via e-mail that two people have added me to their circles, meaning I see whatever they post that's tagged as Public.

Now comes an important difference between Plus and Facebook, as well as other social media networks. Instead of one big blob of hundreds of friends, we can control where or even if we add folks to our circles.

In the preceding case, I can click on the thumbnails because not everyone has a profile picture and some use graphics like Gilberto's. In checking, I find Gilberto is already in my Interesting Folks circle (a custom circle I created just for keeping up with posts that appear of people worth following). I know who Brenda is and she went into my App Inventor circle because we share that interest.

Again, all the ways of setting up and maintaining Circles are in the next chapter. Please let me emphasize again that the concept of Circles, which is a stroke of Google genius, sets Plus apart from all other social networks to date, giving us the ability of categorizing and thus, controlling our contacts.

To summarize this section, you need a Google account and you need to use Gmail, all of which is free.

Getting a Plus Membership

When I started writing this book, Google Plus membership was Limited to By invitation only. It is now open to the public.

If you have a Gmail account, you can start using Plus immediately. Just log in to Gmail and click on the Plus button on the upper-left of the screen (the + symbol followed by your first name).

If you do not have a Gmail account, see the preceding section on how to create one.

Now, we move on to the real names requirement.

 

Privacy concerns


In a requirement that has generated some controversy, Google insists on real names instead of pseudonyms, as people use on many websites to hide their identity. One of the reasons for this is that Google wants users to have verified identities, both privately and publically.

Here's the start of how Google expresses this policy, as follows (see http://www.google.com/support/+/bin/answer.py?answer=1228271):

Using real names is an attempt to (as Google states in the preceding material) make the site more like the real world, where you can find people based on the name you know them by. It also cuts down on nastiness and incivility (flame wars) often seen on sites where individuals hide behind concocted user or screen names.

This is not an unusual concept. Facebook started out by suggesting that real names be used and this is still very common on that network.

In the long run, it's quite possible that, due to pressure, Google will relax this policy. I suspect this will eventually be the case, but for the time being, use your real name or risk getting kicked off. That's the way it is.

Personally, I've been on the Internet pretty much continuously for decades and always used my real name, and will keep on doing that. As a writer, I make my living by having people know who I am.

I realize others have privacy concerns about putting their real names on the Internet, so you'll have to make your own choice in this matter.

Mine is: Real names are okay and Plus is fantastic.

 

Profiles


Speaking of revealing stuff, you can put as much or as little in your Profile as you like (some of which is asked during the join-up process). I have not done much on my profile, so let's use me as an example and get it filled up. Some of this will come from the already completed Google profile that is required before sign-up. To edit:

  1. 1. On your Google Plus home page, click on your photo (or where the photo goes).

  2. 2. When the profile page comes up, click on Edit Profile and you get the following page:

  3. 3. Choose a photo from your computer and upload it by clicking on change photo.

  4. 4. Now we need a description. Being a writer, I have no trouble in coming up with a lot more than will display easily. However, keep it short here, there's more space coming up for the long bio.

  5. 5. Next, we add some photos (just anything you'd like to share). Click on Add some photos here. I've uploaded a few that were handy on my computer, but I'll soon add some of the mountain scenery and waterfalls that I love photographing. Here's what my profile looks like so far:

Following is a description of us and the photos. We can add more biographical information to both, help people be sure they've found the right person, and just read interesting stuff about you. Following is what the form looks like, just click on each item to fill it out. As with the photos and everything else, you can change them whenever you like and as much as you want.

It is possible to have more than one profile, that displays certain elements of your bio display only to the circles you wish it to. This is the way that works.

As you save each bio item about yourself, a drop-down menu, as shown in the following screenshot, asks you about the people who you want to make that viewable to. This lets you structure your bio so that different groups see things pertinent to them.

We'll revisit setting up your profile for specific purposes later in the book.

 

What we learned


We've learned what Google Plus is and what it does, took a good look at the advantages of using Plus, and found out how to join the site. We discussed the real name issue and set up our profile. And above all, saw just why Google+ is the place to be!

Now, time to explore Circles and get set up for the best and most enjoyable experience of using Google Plus!

About the Author
  • Ralph Roberts

    Ralph Roberts is a decorated Vietnam veteran and worked with NASA during the Apollo moon program. He built his first personal computer in 1976 and has been writing about them and on them since his first published article Down with Typewriters in 1978. He has written over 100 books along with thousands of articles and short stories. His bestsellers include the first U.S. book on computer viruses (which resulted in several appearances on national TV) and Classic Cooking with Coca-Cola, a cookbook that has been in continuous print for the past 17 years and sold half a million copies. Ralph is also a video producer with over 100 DVD titles now for sale nationally on places such as Amazon.com. He has also produced hundreds of hours of video for local TV in the Western North Carolina area and sold scripts to Hollywood producers. Previously for Packt, Ralph wrote Celtx: Open Source Screenwriting, Google App Inventor, and Google Plus First Look. Ralph and his wife Pat live on a farm in the mountains of Western North Carolina with two horses.

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Google Plus First Look: a tip-packed, comprehensive look at Google+
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