dwcoon's blog: Google Plus Circles - A Beginner's Guide to G+

What the heck is a Google+ Circle? Good question. You've found your answer right here....

A Beginner's Guide to G+

by DWCOON 9/3/14 2024

So what is Google+?

Google Plus (G+) is a social network many times more innovative than Facebook. G+ is a social media platform comparable to Facebook, however G+ is in many ways, a more evolved and innovative product than Facebook.

So innovative in fact that concepts like "Circles" are not very intuitive at first. Many are put off by the confusion of a new concept like this that they fall back to what they're used to on Facebook: "Friends".

But once you take a few moments to understand what Circles are, you'll find that organizing people by Circles is far superior to just adding people as "Friends". Human relationships are much more complicated than categorizing everyone you know as a "Friend" "Close Friend" or "Acquaintance" as with Facebook.

Your Google Plus account is based upon your Google Profile (learn more) aka your Gmail account. Your Google+ Profile contains your basic information that other people with Google Accounts can see when you email them. According to Google, the purpose of the profile is to help shape what you see when you search your own name online.

You control what information of yours is visible to the world. Most importantly, you can add a profile picture that everyone sees when you email them from your Gmail. Also you can build your personal bio, share any information you want like your address, phone number and email address, plus links to your personal or professional Websites and other social media.

Google lets you decide which audiences can see each section of information. Don't want the whole world to know where you live? You can choose to share that information with select groups of people (i.e 1 or more Circles) or share with just one specific person or keep it private altogether. If you're sensitive about your private information, you can build a Google profile using only your name -- Google doesn't require you to include additional information.

Learn about details about Circles and how they work from this helpful guide by HowStuffWorks.

Creating Circles

Circles are an easy way to organize your life. Circles are not only the people you know like in real life. You can add, people, places, things, ideas, concepts, business, celebrities, genres and so much more.

They make it easy for you to share with just the right people, whether you're sending an inside joke to friends or sharing that unbelievable photo with everyone. You have 3 circles to start out with, and you can create new circles for even more flexibility.

I currently have more than 40 Circles with more being added as needed. A few examples that I use often: USMC (for all of the Marines that I know), My Influences (people I know plus famous people who are/have influence me), Jesus (Christians plus other related material), Zombies (people whom I want with me in the event of a zombie incident), Trust News, Music, Fun and many more. You get the idea, best to jump in and start creating your own Circles to find out for yourself.

So basically, the more important someone is to you, the more circles you add them to and vice versa. Some of my best friends are in ten or more circles, while other people who are less important in my life are in just one or two circles.

People Can't See To What Circle/s You Add Them
When you add someone to a Circle, they do get a notification, but it only tells them that you added them on Google Plus and to how many circles they added you too. They can not see what the names of the Circle/s you added them to are called. So maybe they added you to a Circle named "Favorite People" or "Dumbest People I Know." You'll never know other than how many Circles they've added you too.

You Can Add People To Multiple Circles

This might not be obvious for everyone, but yes, you can have one single person in several of your Circles. And knowing that they neither see where you add them, nor that you add them to more than one Circle, should put you at ease with trying different combinations. It goes without saying that people can also not see who else is in one of your Circles with them.

I am always pleased when people add me to more than one circle. It shows me that they value me as more than just one thing. Also it shows me that they have their own personalized system of organizations the people in their live more than just generic categories like friends and family.

Organize Circles Based On How You Want to Interact

You should by all means experiment with Circles and see which ones work best for you. Instead of just creating Circles based on how you know people (friends, family, colleagues etc.) try creating Circles based on what you want to share with them or how you want to interact with them. Are they a science buff? Add them you a Science Circle, so that when you come across cool science stuff you find online, you can share with just the people who are interested in that kind of stuff.

Remember that Circles are not only shown on Google Plus, but also as labels in Gmail. You can even search mail in Gmail by circle, e.g. circle:friends. Moreover, if you regularly use Hangouts with a specific set of people, you can use Circles as Invite lists.

Manage What You See In Your "Home Stream" (same as your Facebook Feed)

Say you just want to see what is going on with everyone in your "Smart People" Circle. G+ allows you to do just that. In your Home stream you can see what your Circles are sharing with you. However, you decide that is shown in the All tab and you can choose a different setting for each of your Circles.

From the menu on top of your Home stream, select one of your Circles. As you view the stream from a specific Circle, you will see a slide control in the top right. When the slider is in the left-most position, none of the posts from people in that Circle will be shown on your Home stream. In the right-most position, all posts will be shown and you will be subscribed to notifications.

This is super innovative. I've never seen anything like it before. I totally didn't understand it at first, but once I got it, I never saw Facebook's primitive system the say way again. Best way to understand this is to try it out for yourself.

About extended circles

When you share something, you might notice an option to share with your extended circles. Your extended circles include people in your circles' circles. Posts shared with your extended circles will be visible on your posts tab to people in your circles' circles.

Want to Learn More, Watch this YouTube Video: