Signing In for the First Time
The first time you access Google+, you are asked to sign in with your Google account (as shown in Figure 2-1). Click Sign in, type your name and password, and click Sign in again.
FIGURE 2-1 Signing in to Google+ for the first time.
The first time you sign in to Google+, a series of pop-up displays asks you to add information to the service.
The first asks if you want to connect a Yahoo! or Hotmail account to Google+. Chapter 4 has more information on adding other services to a Google+ account; for now, you can click Skip and Continue anyway to move on to Circle information.
Google+ recommends that you add at least ten people to your Circles before you start to use the service. You can use the search box to find people you know and add them to your Circles:
1. Type the name of a person you know into the search box. People matching that name appear in a list of results, as shown in Figure 2-2.
2. Click Add to circles next to the correct person. Four options appear in a drop-down list:
+ Friends
+ Family
+ Acquaintances
+ Following
3. Choose an option from the list that best matches your real-life relationship with the person. (Following is usually for people you don’t know in real life but are interested in anyway, such as a celebrity.) A pop-up box appears describing Circles and how they work.
4. Click Okay, got it.
FIGURE 2-2 Finding people for your Circles for the first time.
When you have finished adding people to Circles, click Continue. You see a list of interesting and famous people that you can follow, as shown in Figure 2-3. Click Add next to groups of people you find interesting, and they are added to your Following Circle.
FIGURE 2-3 Adding groups of interesting people to the Following Circle.