The google+ experience

The Google+ ExperienceSo you’ve just joined G+, what do you do now?

The DashboardOn the dashboard you see your stream from your circles. To the right you can choose which circle stream to display. At the top you can also view photos, your profile and your circles (where you add more contacts).

PostingThe posting is a very familiar function. The beauty of G+ is that you can choose who sees the posts based on circles or specific contacts. You can also tag people in posts by typing “+” then their name. Upload photos, videos, links and locations all from the dashboard.

Adding FriendsIts a simple drag and drop system. You select the people you see and drag them to one of the circles below. Create a few circles first to categorize your contacts. Remember G+ is expected to be big so don’t be afraid to create a lot of segmentation.

CirclesOnce people are in your circles you can easily find them. Notice the people in the circle are also highlighted above. Double-click the circle to view them all. You can also rename and edit the circle from there.

ProfileThe profile is incredibly clean and pretty simple to navigate. Albums of videos or photos have the thumbnails of the items below the main item in your stream. You can view the threaded comments below posts. You’ll also see who has the person in a circle and who they’ve added. Makes it very easy to find new people to add.

PhotosGoogle did a great job with the photos! They are displayed like Google Image search. If a photo has a comment, the comment icon is display in the top right with the number of comments. Double-click the photo to enlarge and view the comments.

SparksOne feature of G+ I hope catches on! Essentially this is your G+ Google Alerts. You can create “Sparks” of categories you’re interested in and G+ pulls content from the web. Eventually I hope that Google pulls the information from the stream as well for one happy place of content you choose.

The Rules1. Do not talk about G+2. Do not talk about G+3. Invite as many as your friends as possible4. Tell your friends to invite as many friends as possible.