The Best Google+ Extensions
A great way to expand your Google+ experience is to install Google Chrome extensions. These are small programs that add custom functionality to the Google Chrome web browser, which you can install via the Chrome Web Store (https://chrome.google.com/webstore).
In the Chrome Web Store, click Extensions in the sidebar to display a list of extensions you can install.
Select an extension to view its details (as shown in Figure 14-9), click Add to Chrome, and then click Install to add it to your browser. The extension quickly and quietly installs (there is no need to refresh or restart your browser).
FIGURE 14-9 Installing an extension in Chrome.
You can browse for extensions or use the built-in search engine to find useful ones. Here are some great Google+ extensions to search for:
+ Google +1 Button. This extension adds a +1 button to the Chrome Toolbar (to the left of the settings icon), enabling you to easily +1 any page you want.
+ Google+ Notifications. This extension enables you to view notifications of Google+ activity in the Chrome browser no matter which website you are looking at.
+ G+ Extended. This extension adds some extra shortcuts to Google+.
+ Replies and more for Google+. This extension adds extra buttons that enable you to reply to individual people (such as the author of a post).
+ +Photo Zoom. This extension enables you to zoom in on photos and profile images inside the Google+ Stream by hovering the mouse over the image (as shown in Figure 14-10).
FIGURE 14-10 Extensions add new functionality to Google+, like this photo zoom.
+ Helper for Google+. This extension adds a bunch of extra features, including the ability to tweet posts direct to Twitter, as well as bookmark Google+ posts and translate posts with Google Translate.
+ Extended Share For Google Plus. Sharing posts on Google+ is all well and good, but this extension enables you to also share them on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social networks.
+ Google Translate for Google+. This extension uses Google Translate technology to convert languages in posts so you can follow people posting in languages you don’t understand.
+ Layouts for Google Plus. If you want to personalize Google+, this extension enables you to change the background to any image you want.
Hundreds of other extensions are available for Google+, with new ones being developed and released all the time. You can search for them on the Chrome Web Store.
Why Does Searching for Google+ Just Return Results for Google? Because the plus sign is a boolean search term (it means AND in most search engines, including Google), and because all words in searches are by default designated as AND searches. So the + is disregarded from the search term. If you type Google+ iPhone into Google Search, it recognizes the search term as Google AND iPhone, and returns results from every page with Google mentioned in it. If you put Google+ in quote marks (“Google+”), the plus sign is included and you get results from the Google+ website.