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Google+: A few big improvements before the New Year
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- freehunter 15y agoOne thing I would really like is email notification of new posts, even if they don't specifically mention you. Since there is no G+ app for Windows Phone and their mobile website sucks, it'd be nice if I could set a couple people to be an "always notify", where whatever they post that I am able to see, it emails or texts me to let me know. Right now the only way I see to do that would be to have them specifically mention me in the post.
- Leynos 15y agoThe volume controls for circles are a great idea. I prefer this to the algorithmic approach taken by Facebook. It's a pitty that pseudonymns are still not mentioned here though. NSFW controls would be nice too (as opposed to the blanket ban on NSFW content in place at present).
- swah 15y agoI have to change the volume for each user?
- Random_Person 15y agoI begged for Stream-tuning from the beginning. I've never used Facebook, so I have no basis for comparison, but I really expected to be able to do this from the start.
- modeless 15y agoFacebook used to have a feature very similar to this, but they removed it.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- babarock 15y agoI might have missed it, but I cannot believe they haven't implemented "nicknames"/pseudonymes yet. I thought they had promised it a while ago. How long till we see it? I'm usually not the paranoid 'Google-has-all-your-data-be-afraid-of-your-data-on-the-Internet' type. But nicknames would be cool. There's so much more to "me" than my Google+ profile, thank you very much.
- ergo14 15y agoYou can already specify your nickname/pseudo in your profile, im not sure if it carries any specific meaning in the app yet.
- ben0x539 15y agoThe only improvement I wish for would be to let middle-clicks open things in new tabs, like it does in all those other websites that aren't drowning themselves in clever javascript.
- simoncion 15y agoWhen this is broken, please use the "Report an Issue" button to let folks know. I am told that the fancy JavaScript-ized links are supposed to work just like ordinary anchor-tag links, so any user-visible deviation from this behaviour is a bug. (Don't ask me why in the hell Google is so fond of breaking their fancy links.)
- nostromo 15y agoOne big missing feature for me is the wall post from Facebook or the @at message from Twitter. I didn't realize at first how much I use the 'open direct message' features on these other networks until I started messing around with G+.
- ergo14 15y agoyou start your word with + and you will get a autocomplete that works like @ at twitter ;-) Also hashtags are now supported.
- joejohnson 15y agoIt also works by using an '@' and typing a friend's name. So, just like twitter and just like the GP is wishing it would.
- simoncion 15y agoG+ will change the '@' into a '+' when you commit the post or comment.
- nostromo 15y agoawesome! thanks for the tip.
- Random_Person 15y agoI have no experience with how Facebook does it, but I find myself sharing a lot of things with just a single user on G+. Then we discuss it.
- tomkarlo 15y agoYou can share directly with one user on G+, either privately (just make them the only person you share with) or publicly (share with them, plus the "public" circle.) Either way, they'll receive a notification message that you've shared something with them, and it will also show up in their stream. It's a lot easier than, say, Twitter DMs, where they're a totally out-of-band message.
- Matt_Cutts 15y agoVolume sliders for circles is something I've wanted for a while. My wife and parents are posting to Google+ now, but sometimes I miss their posts. Now I can pump up the volume on my "Family" circle to 11 and I'm more likely to see their posts.
- chime 15y agoYou might like my Plus Minus extension for Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pidkbnhjgdngcfcaikoocdanfijkgdli https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pidkbnhjgdngcfcaik... - it has 10k+ users and enables hiding specific circles from the main stream.
- joshuahedlund 15y agoI can't find them right now, but I remember reading a blog post or two complaining that manually dividing your contacts into Circles (and maintaining those Circles over time) was bad/useless busy work to force on users. I wonder if this Volume thing will feel like just another micro-managing necessity that makes it worse. But I'm glad to see that they've added lots of features - like multiple admins for brand Pages, which was a big complaint during the recent brand Page rollout. Google is clearly listening to its users and trying hard to compete in the crowded social network environment.
- bad_user 15y agoI read the same article and it was flawed for a reason - it isn't busy work if you don't use it. You can just have 1 or 2 circles - like Family and the rest of the world. It is extremely useful however if you want multiple channels of communication. Say, you want to post news for Ruby developers and you do that daily ... so why on earth would you want to spam your friends that aren't even developers? On the other hand posting pictures of your child should be for close acquaintances only - friends, colleagues from school / work, family, otherwise if you get popular you'll regret exposing your personal life ;) A feature is busy work as long as you don't need it. As soon as you need it however, it becomes indispensable. Also, this particular problem cannot be solved by either ignoring it or solving it algorithmically.
- judofyr 15y ago> It is extremely useful however if you want multiple channels of communication. Say, you want to post news for Ruby developers and you do that daily ... so why on earth would you want to spam your friends that aren't even developers? On the other hand posting pictures of your child should be for close acquaintances only - friends, colleagues from school / work, family, otherwise if you get popular you'll regret exposing your personal life ;) That's actually one of the weakest part of G+: I can't post something that's both public and limited to one audience. If I post Ruby stuff publicly, I'll spam my friends; if I don't publish it publicly, nobody will know I post Ruby stuff.
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- dhruvbird 15y agoWhy can't they just use up/down vote on a post and determine these numbers automagically rather than have a user enter a value for each "circle"? I mean it seems analogous to the problem of spam filtering except that you have a weight function now instead of a binary 0/1.
- voidfiles 15y agoStill no write API, wtf?
- flueedo 15y agoThey have it. But only for few selected partners. http://adwords.blogspot.com/2011/11/third-party-tools-to-help-manage-your.html http://adwords.blogspot.com/2011/11/third-party-tools-to-hel...
- cydonian_monk 15y agoI really, really, really wish the Google+ Desktop site worked on my iPad like /most every other non-Flash site on the 'net./ It's so bloated with heaven know's what (JavaScript?) that all I get is a tantalizing preview of G+ before Safari crashes. Even regular Google crashes Safari if I'm logged in on my iPad (thanks to the new Google Bar?). G+ is the last 'Desktop Only' website I use. (Outside of work, at least.) This makes it considerably less useful for me. I'd even be happy with a native iPad app, as long as it supported some of the 'desktop only' features like Shared Circles.
- nullymcnull 15y agoNot sure why this should be downvoted; G+ really is an atrocious mess when one tries to view it in most mobile browsers. This all applies to Android too, amazingly enough. If Google wants people to use G+, then they really do need to get it on a javascript diet -- or at least start seriously testing it, starting with their own devices. I got the Galaxy Nexus on release day. Upon trying to visit a G+ post that was linked here (the one about Goog making some guy's daughter cry), it consistently crashed the browser. Every time. Within seconds of load, clearly while doing js gymnastics. A friend with the same phone reproduced. Previously I had seen occasional G+ page crashes or hangups on a 3.0 tablet (TF101), and had a pretty dismal experience with G+ pages on 2.x, but this was outright killing the browser on every single attempt to load it. Whatever the problem was, it didn't go away until several days ago. And while it may no longer crash, G+ is still stupidly sluggish in the browser. All of this on Google's new flagship ICS phone. Why would I put time into engaging with G+, when it seems like they're drunk on javascript bloat and have no one minding the shop on actual end-user experience? If people will have a terrible experience or need to download a dedicated app to view my posts, that's a critical fail. Nevermind these "big improvements'. Get the basics done right first, goog.
- laconian 15y agoIf you're on Android, then why not use the Android app?
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- NotYouOrYours 15y agoGoogle Search used to be great: fast and cached pages made it great! Now it's slow, no cached pages are available, and it tries to load 'miniviews' of each page (which is ridiculous). I tell everyone I know to avoid Google+... stick with Facebook. Google has severe quality problems... only use them if you have to.
- afsina 15y agoThat was totally two irrelevant things you mention. Who are you? A random Facebook employee?
- jrockway 15y agoMore likely someone whose "online pharmacy" was recently delisted.
- redler 15y ago> no cached pages are available Actually the cached pages are still there. Hover to see the "mini-view" you mention. Right next to the URL above the preview is the "cached" link.
- kenjackson 15y agoWhat is usage on Google+ like now? I still don't know anyone, but internet celebrities and Google employees, that use Google+. I've yet to encounter a single person who has recommended that I use Google+. These few improvements only seem interesting to people who are current users of G+, and I feel like that's a really small group -- but maybe I'm wrong.
- ergo14 15y agoI'm using it extensively, so does ~100 of other people in my circle. Try searching g+ for a topic and then add interesting entries to one of your circles, try posting on their subject etc. you will quickly see that there is life there ;-)
- hybrid11 15y agoThere was such a huge influx from my friends to use Google+ when invites were first sent out, but now, barely anyone in my circles use it anymore. However, when I do check it, my feed is filled with posts from 2-3 power users from my Randoms Circle, so this "graphic-equalize" feature is very welcome! Just curious, has anyone stopped using other soical networks and are using G+ instead, or do you use G+ on top of them?
- Leynos 15y agoI've pretty much switched from Facebook to Google+. I find G+ a much more comfortable place on the whole, but I get the impression that Facebook isn't really aimed at me. What Google+ is missing when compared with Facebook is the event planning tool. The one time I find myself returning to Facebook is when someone is organizing a party or a night out.
- hybrid11 15y agoYah that's true, I use the event planning a lot in Facebook. I find that G+ is good for finding content on topics, and creating a community around them. I just don't see any use for more personal social networking as long as all my friends are on Facebook.
- laconian 15y agoThat Circle Volume feature is a great, nonobvious idea.
- anothermachine 15y agoIt wasn't obvious after Facebook implemented it?
- evmar 15y agoI tried Google+ but the red "someone you don't know has added you in a circle" light was always on when I was doing unrelated things on unrelated Google properties. I recall a product manager saying they were going to fix this months ago, but last I looked it was still broken. My account remains deleted. It is ironic: because of that, I might use the product more if it were made by any other company. I just rely on other Google products so much that having this one intrude on others means it's not worth it.
- aestetix_ 15y agoThey forgot to mention their plans to repeal the real names policy. At least, I'm assuming/hoping that's in the works...