Thursday, November 10, 2011

Google Stream and The "Bump"

In a previous post, I discussed setting up Circles in Google Plus. Now that you have set up your Circles, go back to the home screen to see the results. Below the profile picture you will see the choices of Stream. You can view your entire Stream at once (similar to Facebook) or by a particular Circle.  (See the screen shot below)

There are two Stream options below your circles – Incoming and Notifications. Clicking Incoming will direct you to messages that have been sent by people outside of your CirclesNotifications will show you when people in your Circles have commented on something you have posted, or something you have commented on.

One of the great features of any Google product is Chat. It has been incorporated into Google Plus and sits in the familiar left-hand or bottom-right portion of the screen as is similarly found in Gmail. But Chat has recently changed.  Previously, users with a lot of Circles and Chat contacts had the ability to enable chat for particular groups. If you wanted to connect with friends and family but not acquaintances you were able to do that. (See the screen shot below)

You no longer have this option.  According to Google, the reason here you aren't able to invite Circles to chat now, is due to changes that they've made. They heard from users that Chat enabled Circles were confusing.   Google took this feedback to give the user more control over who they chat with in Google+.

You’ll be required to explicitly invite people for them to appear in your Chat list. Simply type the person's email address into the chat search box and click “Invite to Chat”.  A note will appear in their Chat list letting them know that you want to chat with them. Before you can Chat with someone, they must also add you to their Chat list.  When you attempt to add individuals to Chat, you must use the email address of the individual you are inviting to Chat in order to successfully invite them.  (See the creen shot below)

If you are using Google Plus in a Chrome browser, desktop notifications do not pop up when someone sends you a message like it would in Gmail.  Posting a status update in Google Plus is not like sending a Tweet or updating Facebook.  The core functions of an update are to present; photos, links, video and location.   However, when you hit "share" it doesn't automatically post your message to everybody in your Circles. You have the option to decide which Circles your update is posted to, from individual groups to all Circles, to extended Circles, or just a single person.

Another interesting feature in the user stream is that conversations will surface back to the top of the feed when subsequent comments are made on a thread.  According to Google developer Jean-Baptiste Queru, this is called"Bumping."  Google Buzz has this same capability and it was also a feature of FriendFeed.  Stream and Bumping are at the center of interaction in Google Plus.  While there are other great features of Google Plus that we will discuss, your Stream is the most important part.  This is what people follow you for…this is the attraction element and you must capitalize on this to build your following.

Yours In Success & Spiritual Empowerment…

 

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