6. Search

Google has made a name for itself with one thing: search. It stands to reason, then, that you can search Google+ for a variety of things. Not only can you search across all the posts visible to you on Google+ (including all public posts and posts shared with only you or with a circle you’re a member of), but you can also search Google+ users. Think a friend from grammar school may be using Google+? Type in his name, and see if he has a profile.

This chapter covers using Google+’s search functionality to find posts and people, as well as saving searches for future use.

Searching Google+

Right at the top of every Google+ page, you’ll find the Google+ navigation bar and a Search Google+ box (Figure 6.1). You know how to search, don’t you? Enter a query and click. But with Google+, you don’t have to click. Start typing in the Search box, and Google offers up some suggestions—first people on Google+ who match your query and then general suggestions (Figure 6.2). When you click a person in the suggestions list, you’re taken to his Google+ profile. Pressing Return or Enter, or clicking one of the additional search suggestions, takes you to the Google+ search results (Figure 6.3).

Figure 6.1. The Google+ Search box waits for your searches.

Figure 6.2. People on Google+ are searched first, with Web searches listed second.

Figure 6.3. The Everything tab of a Google+ search for John Scalzi.

Figure 6.3 shows the results of a Google+ search for author John Scalzi. Because he’s actually on Google+, the first thing listed is his profile, with a green button listing the circles I have him in. (If he weren’t in any of my circles, that would be a red button labeled Add to Circles.)

If you search for a more common name, chances are that you’ll find more than one person on Google+ with that name. In Figure 6.4, multiple people are listed at the top.

Figure 6.4. There are multiple Scott McNultys on Google+, and search finds them all.

The search results consist of four tabs across the top:

• Everything. This tab is the default tab, listing all the content that you’ll find in the rest of the tabs.

• People. Listed here are the profiles on Google+ that are relevant to your search (Figure 6.5). The search doesn’t limit itself to merely matching on name, but also includes the contents of the profile. Therefore, a search for john scalzi brings up Ghlaghghee’s profile (that’s John’s cat) because the phrase John Scalzi appears in her profile.

Figure 6.5. The People tab shows that search isn’t limited to names; profile text is also searched.

You can add people to circles right from the People tab too, which is convenient.

• Google+ Posts. One of the key features of Google+ is that everything shared on the service is as public as you want it to be. This means that a search of posts, as shown in the Google+ Posts tab, will be slightly different for everyone (Figure 6.6). All public posts that meet your search parameters are included, as are any other posts that were shared with you directly or with a circle that includes you. (All your posts are also visible to you in your own searches, of course.)

Figure 6.6. Searching Google+ posts is a good way to see what people are thinking about a subject.

The Google+ post results are sorted by Best Of first, meaning that posts that have lots of comments or shares are listed before other posts that perhaps are more recent but didn’t get as much attention from people on Google+. Click the Most Recent link at the top of the search results to see the posts that meet your search criteria in reverse chronological order, with the most recent at the top (Figure 6.7).

Figure 6.7. Posts in search results are sorted in Best Of order by default.

• Sparks. The first three tabs of the Google+ search deal with content from Google+ itself, but what if you’re looking for things to share on Google+? Sure, you can share other posts that you find via search, but the Sparks tab is designed to find sharable things (such as Web pages and videos) on the Internet for you.

I’m something of a geek, which I’m sure comes as a shock to you. I’m interested in science fiction, so I searched for science fiction and clicked the Sparks tab (Figure 6.8). Sparks lists a variety of articles and videos about science fiction that I might find interesting. I can click Share, add a comment, and post a spark to my stream (Figure 6.9). Notice that the post is labeled Recommended by Google+.

Figure 6.8. In a search for science fiction, the Sparks tab returns links that might be of interest.

Figure 6.9. You can post sparks to your stream to foster conversation.

Keep in mind that Google+ searches are just like Google searches, so you can use the same syntax for more complicated searches. Sugar AND spice returns only things with both words sugar and spice in them, whereas soup OR salad returns any posts with either soup or salad in them.

Saving Searches

Chances are that you’ll find yourself doing a few Google+ searches over and over. Whether you’re doing a vanity search (searching for your name or perhaps the name of your book about Google+) or searching for the name of a company that you’re interested in, typing the terms over and over and clicking Search just isn’t an efficient use of your time.

Every Google+ search comes, free of charge, with a Save This Search button (Figure 6.10). When you click this button, the search is saved and placed in the saved-searches list in the first column of the Google+ interface, right below your stream filters (Figure 6.11). When you click any of the saved searches, the name of the search turns red, and the search is run against Google+.

Figure 6.10. Each search can be saved to your saved-searches list.

Figure 6.11. Saved searches are displayed below the stream filters.

Deleting a saved search is easy. Just do this:

1. Place your mouse over the saved search you want to delete.

An X appears next to it (Figure 6.12).

Figure 6.12. Delete a saved search by hovering over it and clicking the X that appears.

2. Click the X.

The saved search is removed from the list.