Even if Google+ is not yet free for everyone, it is not difficult to get an invitation and there are already several active people who post and share anything. Google Plus or Google+ is the new Google social network that is based on the end of the circles, i.e. the groups of friends to be organized so that a message or a photo can be visible to some and not to others.
Google Plus takes Facebook as an example, copies some of its winning elements and builds a friendlier and friendlier social network for users, which does not scare, neither from a technical point of view nor from the decisive one of privacy.
In this article we see how to start a Google Plus profile, without making a boring guide of small talk but practically demonstrating how fast it is to start sharing photos and news with friends immediately, invite them and be immediately inserted in other people's circles .
UPDATE 2019: Closes Google+, which remains only for companies
1) To register you need to create a Google account. After receiving an invitation then you need to create a new account to use Google services.
A Google Account can be accessed by pressing the Login button from the Google.com or Google.it search engine page.
You can manage the login passwords and the services to be used from the Google account page.
2) To create a new Google profile, you need to prove your identity by providing a mobile number and receiving a verification text message or an automatic call.
To access Google Plus ( plus.google.com ) you must be real people with name and surname .
The pseudonym or nickname can be indicated later in a field of the profile.
For now, company accounts or accounts related to organizations, websites and blogs are not allowed, so much so that Ford and Repubblica.it accounts have also been banned.
3) Once you enter Google Plus the first things to do are the following:
- By clicking the Edit profile button, upload a photograph .
- Some fields must be completed, the most important of which are: Name, School, Profession and I introduce myself .
By clicking on the various sections, you are writing and editing.
As I see it, it is better to fill in all the fields, including those of the home address, telephone that's why then with the privacy settings they will protect themselves from foreign eyes.
The Google profile is a virtual business card that can also be found on the internet by searching .
Each modification must be saved and then at the end you must press the top button "Modification completed" .
4) The most important part of the profile is related to connections with other sites and social netowork . On the right side of the information sheet you must click the Edit profile button and then where Link is written.
Click on Add custom link, give a name (like " On Facebook ") and then copy and paste the URL of the Facebook profile (like //www.facebook.com/pomhey ).
Below add the links with the URLs of your website, blog, Twitter profile, MySpace, Linkedin and any other site where there is a personal file, even a forum, an online game and so on .
In this way we communicate to Google that (for example) Claudio Pomhey is always the same person and we indicate contact references.
For personal pages you can put the flag on the option " This page talks about me specifically ".
The various added links can be ordered as you want using the mouse and it is important to put the three most important as the first three because these will then be displayed when you search for a profile on Google.
Any changes made to the profile are then saved and completed .
5) The next step is to set privacy on Google Plus which, compared to Facebook, is a breeze.
For each section of the profile, by pressing the edit button again, you can indicate a level of privacy.
There are 4 levels : Anyone on the web, Circles, Extended circles, Personalized .
With Personalized you can add individual people by indicating their name.
Extended circles are all the people included in the circles of friends who have been added to your circle.
The circle is nothing but a group of friends .
6) Before creating the circles, you can change the privacy of each element of the profile then, before pressing the " Modification completed " button, go to the photo, video, +1 and Buzz tabs (if you used Google Buzz).
7) Create circles and add friends . On Google+, there is no need to be shy or paranoid about privacy and adding people.
Google+ works a bit like Twitter: I can add you, you can choose not to follow me because you are not interested in what I write or share.
Since you don't have friends at the start of a new Google Plus account, you need to start gathering everyone in circles .
To do this, from the tab with the circles (button at the top), press on the find people .
If step 4 of this guide has been done properly and all accounts have been linked to Google+, you should see many suggested names.
In addition, a Hotmail or Yahoo Mail account can be connected to Google Plus or an address book in CSV format can be uploaded.
If a few names have appeared, you can add them on the circles below by dragging them with the mouse .
Press the More actions button on the right, select all and then press with the mouse and drag all in a new circle (the white one on the right) calling it, for example, all .
Then open the circle all and arrange the names of friends in the circle friends, family members in that of family members, work colleagues in another circle and so on.
Arranging the circles well is useful so you can send messages or share photos with some people and not with others or you can show your phone number (from the profile card) to friends but not everyone and so on.
Those who have been added to a circle but who do not yet have a Google Plus profile, will not receive any notification or invitation and will be shown with photos only when they have registered.
Surely, those who are added to the circle will return the courtesy also because, thanks to the privacy settings, there will be no paranoia to share private information with anyone.
8) To invite new people to join Google Plus just press the Invite other people to enter button which is in the middle right of the homepage of the social network (where there is the stream of stream).
Alternatively, you can press the share button at the top, write something and then indicate the email addresses of the people to invite.
8) Before you start sending messages and posting photo and video updates, you should adjust the general settings of Google Plus which are found by pressing on the wheel at the top right.
It is better to limit the notifications that are received via Email so as not to be stormed by a thousand Emails.
Notifications appear in the Google toolbar at the top (also on Gmail and Google Reader).
You can decide whether to share the geographical position on the photos if you use Google+ via mobile.
Who can start Huddle conversations (Huddle is the instant messenger chat via Android phone or iPhone).
Whether to share the +1 facts on the sites (for example, if you press here the +1 to Navigaweb.net is shared on the +1 tab of the si Plus profile).
9) You can finally share from the stream tab where the updates of the people added to your circle appear.
Photos, text, links, videos and geographic locations can be shared .
For each shared thing you can decide the level of privacy and therefore whether to share it publicly, with all the circles, with the extended circles, with one or two chosen circles, with one or more specific contacts.
If I want to send a message to a friend I can write on the stream and share it only with him indicating his name; others will not see that message.
If you share something publicly by choosing " Public ", the message will be searchable on the search engine and visible to strangers.
10) The chat is that of Gmail, iGoogle and Google Talk ; to be seen online, press the down arrow button next to the chat and give consent.
11) Google plus can also be used from iPhone or Android mobile phone .
In other articles we will see how to use the fantastic hangout function, perhaps one of the best technical innovations of Google Plus.
If you liked the article, press +1 and add me (Claudio Pomhey) in Google Plus! Email me here to receive an invitation to sign in to Google Plus
