What is Google+?

Google+ is a social network by Google the #1 in search engine. Even though there exists other social networks, Google always comes up with a unique and innovate way of connecting people. Privacy is one of the huge complaints about todays social networks. Google+ is designed with privacy as a key feature and it is its one of the main goals.

Here is in own words by Google

We realize that today people are increasingly connecting with one another on the web. But the ways in which we connect online are limited and don’t mimic our real-life relationships. The Google+ project is our attempt to make online sharing even better. We aren’t trying to replace what’s currently available; we just want to introduce a new way to connect online with the people that matter to you

Some of the cool features about Google+ are

• Circles
• Hangouts
• Instant Upload
• Sparks
• Huddle

We’ll cover each of the above topics in a separate post.

So, when is Google+ launching?

Well unfortunately we don’t have an official date yet. But rumors are circling around that most of the invites will go out by this month.

How to get a Google+ invite?

There are two ways

• Someone already using the Google+ product can send an invite
• Another way watch out this page https://plus.google.com for a invite form

Beware of Google+ invite scam

Google+ product is in limited, signup only by invite mode right now. Google is tirelessly working on fixing some bugs so that they can make it available to everyone.

But unfortunately this gave way to opportunists out there on the internet. We’ve come across many scenarios where they sell or offer Google+ invites.

Please don’t fall for those false claims. As a proof, we are on Google+ and as per last week the invites are disabled which means there is no way anybody can invite others. So, anybody claiming that they can offer is a FRAUD or FALSE claim and their only intention is after your money. So, please beware of these invite scams.

As soon as Google is ready with the Google+ product, they’ll be sending invites absolutely free of cost.

We’ll also be posting updates once invites are opened up.

So, stay tuned!!.

How to post to facebook from within Google+ automatically?

Most of people who started using Google+ were using facebook before and updating, sharing or posting in both the social networks is a pain and doesn’t help. There is a easier way to post your status, share or post information to facebook from within google+

The process is very simple

1. Visit facebook using the url http://facebook.com/mobile
2. Login if you are not already logged in
3. Look for the unique email address under Upload via email, and look for your personal email is
4. Take that email address and go to Google+ circles
5. Create a new circle called Facebook
6. Add the email by clicking on the Add New Person
7. Now whenever you post or share in Google+, select the Facebook circle you created above

That’s it, your posts will appear in both the popular social networks, Google+ and Facebook

How to fight spam in Google+?

Whenever anything online becomes successful, spammers start moving in there and google+ won’t be an execuse.

We are already seeing some spam popping in but very minimal at the moment. If it is not controlled at earlier stage, it is going to get worse.

Google+ has spam control built in and ready to fight spam. Only thing is Google+ needs our help.

When you see the following message

These posts were shared with you by people who aren’t in your circles. Add people you want to follow and share with (and hide stuff you’re not interested in).

you may want to pay attention. These most of time will be from people who are not in your circles.

If you feel any of this content is spam, you can click on the users profile page and you got 3 options

• Click on the Send an email and let the author know that this spam and not interested (This is possible only they are in your circles)
• If the spam get out of control, you can block the user altogether by clicking Block <user> link on the bottom left
• or click on the Report this profile link on the bottom left and google take care of this

How to get a free google+ invite?

Google has launched it’s best social network effort ever with the launch of Google+ in limited trial mode. Since it’s in trial mode, signup’s are not available to the public.

How to get a free google+ invite?

However Google has given enough invites to us so that we can give it for free. We have already given away 100′s of google+ invites freely to our site users.

We still have a lot’s of Google+ invites to give away and want to share with the interested people. Here are the simple steps to request or get your free google+ invite

• Tweet this page on Twitter
• Facebook like this page on Facebook (use the facebook like button on the left)
• +1 this page on Google (use the +1 button on the left)
• Digg this page on Digg.com

Please do one or more of the above steps and send us an email through the above Contact formand you’ll receive your free Google+ invite.

Enjoy Google+.

UPDATE #1:

Sorry for the delay in sending google+ invites. Too many invites, so it took a while. Now invites for all those requested is sent. Please check your emails, thanks.

Google+ shortcuts for power users

Power users of tools or social networks always look for shortcuts or faster way of doing things.

Here is some of the shortcuts you could use in Google+.

*text* makes the text bold

_text_ makes the text italics

-text- makes the text as 
striked

use @name or +name to mention about a user (it is the same as @name in twitter)

Please share shortcuts you are aware and not covered here.

How to get notification when Google+ is available for public or everyone?

Google+ is still in field trial and signup’s are only by invites. They open invites progressively only through users already in Google+.

Want to get notified / invited when Google+ is available for everyone?

Google has setup a online form which non google+ users can signup and get notified as soon as the network is available for everyone / public.

Here is the Google+ signup notification form.

Google plus profile deletion warning

Are you on google plus and have a profile? Then please read on.

Hope you read our post about google plus business profiles. Yes, google is working on a business version of google plus which is planned to be available in the 3rd quarter of 2011. This is specifically designed for businesses with support for analytics.

Since the above is in works, google want’s to make sure the current google plus is purely individual / consumer focused and they want to keep it clean. We understand that.

In order to ensure quality, google is deleting profiles that are not individuals. So, if you have a profile with business name or your site name or anything similar to that, you should start fixing it immediately or there is a immediate chance of banning or deleting your profile. There is lot’s of noise in the twitter universe about profiles are being deleted.

Convert your profiles with real names if you want to keep’em and please don’t promote about your business.

Let’s help Google to keep google plus purely consumer focused.

How to do delete a google plus profile and all the data associated with it?

Want to delete google plus profile and the data associated with it? then please readon…

Who want to delete a google plus profile when even signing up to google plus is only by invitation and it’s hard to get one. But let’s say you created multiple profiles or testing google plus and now want to delete your profile and start fresh, then deleting your google plus profile and creating a new one is the best option. (WARNING: Deleting a profile, you may loose your invitation and you may have wait for a new invitation, this is not tested.)

Here are the steps of how to delete

• Login into your google plus account
• Click on the gear icon on the top most right
• In the menu that shows up, select Google+ settings
• Now select Account Overview on the left side
• Under Services, now you’ll see 2 options
• Delete profile and social features (This is the option you want to click on if you want to delete a google+ profile and it will take you to a screen with 2 options)
• Delete Google+ Content (This is the option you want to use, to just delete your google+ content)
• Delete your entire Google profile (This will delete your profile across google products, so don’t do that)
• Delete account (Never do this, this will delete all your google services for example, gmail, google+, docs, etc…). But don’t worry it’ll give you a screen with full warning and a range of options to choose, so there is no way to accidentally delete.

We know, no one want’s to delete a google plus profile when people are waiting to join. Just want to highlight that delete feature with complete granular control is built into google plus right from the beginning.

Filling my circles in Google Plus

Well, I did it.  I held my breath, logged into Facebook after a year and a half and was inundated with invites to play “Farmville” and “Mafia Wars,”  which I “ignored” and “blocked.” 

I went through my “friends” list, cleaned it out and sent a bunch of invitations to “Google+”  I am selling the idea of those “huddles” and “hangouts” pretty hard, because, before I can huddle  I need a team to huddle-or hangout- with.  I must  fill my circles!  I think the hardest part of this will be getting people to try something new.

Google+…I’m counting on you and those invitations you provide to wow ‘em.  All I can do is cross my fingers and wait for the replies…and think of more people to bring on board.

How to disable instant upload to google plus from your android or iphone app?

One of the cool features of google plus mobile app is instant upload i.e upload the pictures or video as you shoot instantaneously to the google+ social network.

 As cool as it sounds, sometimes it is not welcomed by everyone. By default instant upload is turned on in your google+ mobile application. Now for example, let’s say you are using a limited data plan or have less battery, when you take a picture or a video, your google+ mobile app will immediately upload the media to your google plus account which might cause you run data overages or drain your battery.

If you are running into above constraints, the good news is, you can disable instant upload or configure to upload photo’s or video’s only when you are on a WiFi / mobile charging.

Here are the steps of how to disable or configure instant upload settings

• In you google+ application, go to Settings
• Goto the bottom section where you’ll find Instant Upload (You can uncheck to disable Instant upload altogether)
• If you choose to use Instant Upload only through WiFi, click on the Instant Upload Settings option
• Click on the Mobile Uploads settings and choose Photo’s and Video’s via Wi-Fi only
• If you choose to save battery, Check the Battery uploads option (This will enable to upload photo’s, video’s only when charging)

Google plus reaches 25 million users the fastest of any social network

We’ve shared news about the growth numbers of google plus social network in our previous posts.

Google plus reached 10 million users

Google plus reached 20 million users

Now we are glad to share another great news that google plus has reached another milestone of 25 million users adding to it’s statistics. It is the fastest growth of any social network in history.

Here are some of  social network growth statistics

• Facebook reached 25 million users in 3 years
• Twitter reached in 2.5 years
• MySpace reached 25 million in around 2 years

Google+ reached 25 million users just in record time of one (1) month (important point to note here is,  google+ still not available for the general public and signup’s were only by invitation)

We have given 100′s of invitations and still we are overwhelmed with requests for google+ signup which shows how much people are interested in joining google+

Google hasn’t officially released any numbers yet, the above numbers came from independent 3rd party, i.e comScore in this case. As we all know, google’s bar are very high and as usual they’ll surprise the world with the official numbers.

How to request for a new google plus feature?

It’s been just a month since google plus launched in free trial mode. Google is still working on putting it’s final touches to make it available to the general public.

As of now google plus has quite a lot of unique features like circles, instant upload, hangouts, huddle, sparks, etc., besides other general features present in other social networks.

Even with these many great features as mentioned above, it’s not possible to satisfy all kind of users. Everybody is unique and has unique expectations. However it is not possible to implement all the features requested by everyone. But there should be always a way to express our opinion and requests, get them voted by others. When they have enough interest, they may consider for inclusion in the upcoming releases.

As part of the effort to involve the general public and existing google plus users to get more involved in taking the google+ to whole new level, google is accepting feature requests through the following link

Google plus feature requests

As of this writing 11,758 people have submitted 1,695 questions and have casted 127,169 votes.

So, if you are interested in having your ideas to be part of the google plus this is the time. Visit the above link and post your own feature request question or vote on questions already posted to get better chance of inclusion.