Navigating between Different Sections of Google+
There are currently five main areas of Google+: Home, Photos, Profile, Circles, and Games, as shown in Figure 3-7. There are many ways to access the different areas, but typically you’ll use the five icons to the right of the Google+ icon.
FIGURE 3-7 The navigation icons.
Clicking any of these icons changes the contents of the page, enabling you to work with a particular area of Google+. Although there’s more to Google+ than these five areas, you spend most of your time working with them.
Looking at your Stream
The default view of the home page shows the activity among the people within your Circles. Scrolling down the Stream reveals more stories listed in chronological order, and Google+ loads older stories as you continue to scroll.
If you haven’t set up any Circles yet, you see a message in the Stream saying Not enough posts in your stream? (as shown in Figure 3-8). When you add people to your Circles, you see a photo slide show of new people who are sharing content with you (those who have added you to their Circles) and you can scroll down a list of recent activity from people you’ve added in your Circles, as shown in Figure 3-9.
FIGURE 3-8 The Stream if you don’t have enough posts in it.
FIGURE 3-9 The Stream after you have added people to your Circles.
As you scroll down the page you can view the posts, including web links and photos, in your Stream. There are three main ways that you can interact with these posts:
+ +1. Clicking the +1 button indicates that you like the post. This activity will not appear in your Stream but other people viewing the post can see who has +1’d the post.
+ Comment. Clicking Comment brings up a text box that enables you to add your thoughts to the post.
+ Share. Clicking Share brings up a box (as shown in Figure 3-10) that enables you to type some text and add the original post to your Stream where it can be seen by people who are following you.
This covers the basics of interaction in the Stream. Chapter 6 has detailed information on how to share posts and manage other people’s comments in your Stream.
FIGURE 3-10 Sharing a post in the Stream.
Viewing photos
The second navigation icon enables you to view photos that people in your Circles have recently added. These appear in a montage in the main display area, as shown in Figure 3-11. When you hover the mouse over each picture, it expands slightly so you can get a closer look, and clicking on a photo displays it in a main window with a dark background so you can examine it closer. You can also interact with photos from this display, which is outlined in Chapter 8.
The right-hand column displays two groups of thumbnail photos: From your phone and Your albums. The left-hand column enables you to narrow down the types of photos being displayed using one of five options:
+ Photos from your circles. This is the default option and displays all photos from people who are in your Circles.
+ Photos from your phone. This displays all photos that you have uploaded using a mobile device. Chapter 13 covers using Google+ with a mobile device.
+ Photos of you. Choosing this option displays photos that people have tagged you in (indicating that the photo includes you).
+ Photos from your posts. This displays photos that you have posted on Google+.
+ Your albums. If you have arranged your photos into albums, this option displays all the photos in your albums.
You can also add new photos to Google+ by clicking the red Upload New Photos button on the right-hand side of the screen.
FIGURE 3-11 Photos from your Circles.
Checking your profile
Clicking the third navigation icon, profile, takes you to your profile page, as shown in Figure 3-12. (Setting up your profile is outlined in Chapter 2.)
FIGURE 3-12 An example profile page.
The left-hand column displays your profile picture and thumbnail photos of eight people in your Circles and eight other people who have you in their Circles.
Clicking the Change who is visible here link below the Circles thumbnails enables you to adjust the contents of the left-hand column according to the following options:
+ Show people in. The left-hand column displays people in your default Circles: Friends, Family, Acquaintances and Following. Use the four circles drop-down list to turn these groups on and off, or you can change it to All circles. Deselecting the Show people in check box turns off this feature.
+ Who can see this? Two options are available here: Anyone on the web and Your circles.
+ Show people who have added you to their circles. Deselecting this check box hides the thumbnails of people who have recently added you to their circles.
Click Save if you’re happy with the changes.
In the Stream you can see a row containing images of you (either ones you have added or ones other people have tagged as you) and the rest of the window contains a list of your posts. You can change the contents of the Stream using the five options below the images:
+ Posts
+ About
+ Photos
+ Videos
+ +1’s
Clicking these options enables you to view the various parts of your profile.
Viewing Your Profile as Another Person Use the View profile as text box to see what your profile looks like to other people. You can type in the name of a person in your Circles, or click Anyone on the web.
Taking a quick look at Circles
Clicking the Circles icon displays a visual overview of all the people in your Circles, as shown in Figure 3-13. There’s no left- or right-hand column in this view and instead the Stream displays a list of people Google+ determines relevant to you. You have three options for sorting the people shown, based on their relationship to you:
+ People in your circles
+ People who’ve added you
+ Find people
You can change the sort order from the default Relevance to First name, Last name, or Recently updated using the Sort by drop-down list.
You can drag the people displayed in the Stream to the Circle icons in the lower half of the window. Clicking a Circle changes the display to show the people in that particular Circle, and you can create new Circles here of your own choosing.
Chapter 4 outlines how to find friends and Chapter 5 explains how to manage your Circles.
FIGURE 3-13 Looking at people in your Circles.
Selecting People in Circles You can select multiple people from the main display area in the Circles view by clicking on them or by dragging a selection box around them.
Accessing the Games Stream
The final icon in the list enables you to play games directly within Google+. Clicking the games icon displays games in the Stream, as shown in Figure 3-14.
A slide show of featured games is displayed in the Stream, and clicking Play in the bottom-left of the image enables you to start playing the game. Games launch and are played inside the Google+ website in your browser.
If any of your friends have played games, you will see their profile pictures next to the Play button. The slide show moves pretty quickly, but you can select a game from the list using the row of icons in the bottom-right of the Stream.
The left-hand column has links to All games and Game notifications (typically notifications are for when you are playing a game with other people and it is your turn). It also displays a list of games that you have played recently.
FIGURE 3-14 The Games Stream.
New Features Google is adding new features to Google+ all the time, so keep an eye on the navigation icons in case any new features are added.