This week Google launched their social networking service (and a really strong answer to Facebook). Although, it’s invite-only for now users have thronged the site and have started posting updates on their profile. Since we are all used to Facebook, it’ll take some time before you find out where things are and how things work on Plus. In this post, I’ll list down some tips to help you make better use of Google Plus.
Upload new Photos:
- Go to plus.google.com
- Click on ‘Photos’.
- Now, you should see a summary of all the photos from people in your circle. Click on ‘Upload New Photos’ option on the right side of screen.
- The photos you upload now will automatically become a part of Picasa Web Albums.
2. Using Google Plus on the move
If you use Mobile Web more than your PC you are not alone. Fortunately, Google Plus has adequate support for mobile users now.
If you use Android, you can grab this app from the Android Market for free. Apps are not available for other platforms, but you can visit m.google.com/plus on your mobile browser to access Google Plus while Google works on an app for your platform.
3. Getting out of a discussion (mute)
This is one huge annoyance in Facebook that has been successfully addressed in Google Plus. Let’s say you left a comment on your friend’s new photo and others start having a pointless conversation in that same thread. You receive notifications every single time an activity happens and this can get very annoying, luckily, Google Plus has the mute option to prevent just that.
When you see notifications on top right of the screen, just click on them and choose ‘Mute this post’ at the bottom of the menu that spreads out.
4. Hide your Circles
For some reason or the other, you might want to hide the list of circles (& friends inside) from being displayed publicly. If yes, read this post to make sure the circles are all private.
5. Make Google Plus look like Facebook
If you’ve been used to Facebook so much that you find Google+ unattractive, here’s something for you. The chrome extension Facebook+ makes Google+’s UI look like Facebook.
6. Share Photos and Post videos on Google+
We’ve already looked at uploading new photos in our very first tip, but this blog post will show you how to share photos as well as videos seamlessly on Google+.
7. Link with Facebook/Twitter/Tumblr
Google Plus allows you to link to your websites or profiles outside of Google. Here’s how you can do it.
- Login to Google Plus.
- Click on your Profile picture to visit your profile.
- Click on ‘Edit Profile’ (The blue button at the top right).
- Now, click on ‘Links’ at the right side of the page. Google will suggest some links automatically, edit them to make everything accurate.
8. Formatting your text
Google Plus allows you to format your status updates to make the fonts look good. Also, you don’t have any restrictions on the number of words for your status message. Here’s how you can format your status message.
You can format the text on Google+ by using the regular symbols like using * at the beginning and the end of a word to make it bold, –text- to strikethrough what you’ve written and _text_ for italics. This works both on comments and status updates. (Via Lifehacker)
9. Turn off Notifications on Google Plus
If you are receiving constant email and navbar notifications from Google Plus and find it intrusive, you can simply disable it. Here’s what you need to do.
- Go to your name at the top right and click on it.
- Choose ‘Account Settings’ in the dropdown menu.
- Click on Google+
- You will now see a page with tons of check-boxes. Read through this carefully and choose when you want to be notified and when you don’t want to be.
10. Hide Relationship Status
If you are looking to hide your relationship status on Google+, read this blog post.
If you’ve got some useful tips to share with us, leave a comment below and enlighten us!
