Few things to know about Google Plus

Guys and Girls out there in FB...We are all excited about Google +. It is simpler, neater and far more secure and socialized. Well atleast for now anyways.


I am just trying out how it works. Will keep this note updated as what all changes u would look for, privacy and account settings, profile settings etc., Most of you might have seen the demo. Anyways here is the link


http://www.google.com/intl/en/+/demo/


However after 23 hours of being on G+ (typing Google + is too big and I am writing this post since then :P) I noticed few things which you should also know as soon as you open up a G+ account.


First is that G+ is so simpler and neater with bigger fonts. Might be annoying after watching FB with too many small fonts. You will get used to it. Second thing is "View profile as". This feature reminds me of Orkut where you can see your own profile as how it will look to your friends. Guess what. It just got better.

As seen in the screenshot, you can see a small space to type in your friend's name in "View Profile as" option. You can type any of your friends' name just like searching them. And later you see your profile via their eyes.

So this is useful if you are not sure what your friend or even your manager (friend ?!?!) might see on your profile, posts inspite of being on different "Circles". Once you are done with viewing just go ahead and hit the "done" tab. FYI, I have hidden my friend's name in the screenshot :)


So we saw 2 good things. But there also few things to watch out far. Go to your settings page. It is in the top-right corner in the form of a wheel.

Click on "Google + settings" and you get directed to the Settings page. I was actually shocked to see all options have been checked. Remember those days we used to get emails for each scrap in Orkut and each post or comment in FB. This is exactly the same thing. You don't your gmail or other email inbox to be flooded with emails for each and every update in your network, rite? So go ahead and uncheck the options you don't want. I have removed all the options. Anyways I login to G+ atleast twice a day and would see anything in notification area. So choose what you wanna do. Good thing is that the settings gets automatically saved.

Next thing that grabbed my attention was "Connected accounts". It is so good that all Blogger accounts, Faceboo, Twitter, Linked In profiles can be connected. But again it is left to users wish. Do not link the account if you want it to be discretionary.

I tried checking the "Data Liberation". It does help to download your data as zip file.

So I tried downloading my posts from G+. You get an option to choose what you want to download. After the the size calculation is done, you go can right ahead with the download.

I wish Google gave me an option to download where it wants to store that zip file. I am still wondering where that zip file has gone. 

Better checkout the "Profile and Privacy" tab as well. There could be something else Google has in it for you.


https://plus.google.com/settings/privacy


Will add few more once I get to know G+ well.