Within three weeks of its recent launch, Google+ (the new social networking tool from Google) had reached a total of 20 million users. That’s a massive success so soon after launching, and clearly a lot of people are really excited. But what exactly is Google+? What are its attributes and, with so many other social networks already available, do you need to use it? This article offers a beginner’s guide to Google+ to help you find out.The premise
The idea of Google+ is that, when you sign up, you create different circles to represent the different groups of people you know. For instance, you could set up one circle for your friends, another for your family, one for your work colleagues, another for people you only know online and so on. The thinking behind this is that it allows you to set different privacy settings for different groups, so you only share what you want to with various people.
Privacy
One of the main features of Google+ is its focus on privacy, which is naturally really important when it comes to protecting yourself online. One thing to bear in mind is that you aren’t allowed to use a pseudonym (fake name) on the website – you have to use your own name, and there have been instances of Google suspending people’s accounts for using fake names so it’s definitely worth making sure you use your own.
When you set up your circles on Google+, one of the good things about them is that no one else knows which of your circles they are in or what you have called the circle. This gives you great control over it and means that you can set your privacy settings to however tight you want them to be, without anyone questioning why they can only see part of your information. If you place one person in more than one circle, though, you’ll need to remember which ones they’re in to make sure you’re sending information to the right group of people.
Things to consider
There are a few things to bear in mind when you are using Google+. One issue is that you can follow anyone else by adding them to one of your circles without them also having to add you. In this respect, the network is more like Twitter than Facebook as it doesn’t require the other person to reciprocate in order for you to be able to see at least some of their posts.
The flipside of this, however, is that people can also add you to their own circles without gaining your consent. This means that you should definitely take steps to protect your privacy from people you don’t know, as unlike with Twitter, there is no simple option to protect your posts from others. Hover, you can fairly simply edit your profile to control what people see.
In conclusion, Google+ is an exciting new social network that combines many of the best bits of other networks, while adding its own twist. As long as you’re careful about your privacy settings, you shouldn’t have any issues when using it.