Google+ Insider's Guide News

Google+ Pro Tips Round-Up: Week 3

Now that you can invite anyone you want to Google+, the floodgates are open. If you've been bummed out about not being able to share the joys of Google+ with your friends and acquaintances, make use of that handy envelope icon the right side of your stream page. Just enter the email addresses of the people you want to invite, and hit the "Invite" button.

News: Getting to Know Google's Community Managers

So you've added Google insiders, celebrities, and authors to your circles, but you want to know who you can reach out to for help when it comes to Google overall. Luckily for you, there seems to be a Community Manager for almost every Google product. If you've got an issue with your Google Account, just contact them via their Google+ profile!

News: Google+ for iPhone is Finally Here!

Just announced by Google's Senior Vice President of Engineering +Vic Gondotra, Google+ has finally arrived for the iPhone! Many people have been waiting for this for a while, and it seemed like it would be held up forever in Apple purgatory, but now it's available for the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and the iPhone 4. Support for iPad and other Apple iPhone devices is in the work, so be patient. You can download it directly from the iTunes store.

News: The First (Real) Celebrities Arrive on Google+

One of the coolest things about Twitter is the fact that you can get direct access to some of your favorite celebrities, and have one-on-one conversations with them in less than 140 characters. With Google+, you can have the same advantage, but you don't need to feel constricted by the 140 character limit. Although Google+ has been weeding out fake accounts, they do not currently have a system for celebrities to verify whether their accounts are legitimate or not.

News: The Top 32 Authors to Follow on Google+

Google+ isn't filled with just Google workers and tech-obsessed nerds. Many creative people are part of the community, and they're using Google+ to connect with their fans. Authors, especially, love talking to people about their work. We've rounded up the best published authors for you to follow on Google+. We've listed their best known works so that you can get an idea of the topics they write about.

News: Should Google+ Require You to Use Your Real Name?

Google started culling Google+ accounts. There are two main targets: businesses and those who are using pseudonyms. For businesses, Google is promising to provide their own version of Facebook Pages, which will be released later this year. For those who use pseudonyms, they aren't so lucky. According to Google+'s community standards, users must "use the name your friends, family, or co-workers usually call you". The purpose of this rule is ostensibly to discourage spammers and people from set...

EPIC: Google+ Collaborative Manual

I just found this via +Adele Shakal. Now this is how you use Google Docs. This document is an epic collaborative project that assembles all the available tips and tricks for Google+. I think I'm in love with everyone who wrote this manual. It's elegant, clear and well, not concise, but a great introduction to Google+.

News: Is Google+ More of a Threat to Twitter than Facebook?

Much of the press around the launch of Google+ has pitted it squarely against Facebook. This was highlighted painfully for Facebook with their (misguidedly dubbed) "awesome" announcements yesterday. Their launch of a new design, video calling, and group chat might have been exciting, had not Google announced its Hangout feature for Google+ a week earlier (and by the way, introduced their own 1-on-1 video calling inside of Gmail way back in 2008). Hangouts took video calling a step further and...

News: Update Facebook from Google+ without an extension

Justin Bee outlines a method to update Facebook from your Google+ account without actually having to go download an extension. Basically you set up your Facebook account to receive your Google+ posts as email to your Facebook Wall. There's a limitation though - text will truncate after 50 characters, so make sure your messages to Facebook users are short and sweet.

News: Add your Facebook stream to Google+

Are you finding that you're spending all of your time inside Google+ and neglecting your Facebook Wall? You can import that wall to your Google+ stream and keep track of conversations on both places in the only place you care about, Google+. This is a browser extension that works with Firefox and Chrome. They're working on making it work for IE.

News: A Google+ Love Story

Things have only gotten more exciting for +Bradley Horowitz, VP of Product Management for Google. After launching Google's highly buzzed social networking sites, he took his girlfriend +Irene Au, a designer for Google, to Paris. While there, he proposed to her, and she said yes!

Google+ Pro Tips Round-Up: Week 1

With the Google+ team members being generous and free-flowing with advice on some of the more advanced features of Google+, we'll be publishing a weekly summary of the latest pro tips. Chances are, if you've been following the Google+ team members, you've seen some of these already but you don't have them all in one handy place.

News: Welcome to the Google+ Insider's Guide!

Google+ is the most exciting new social network to come around this decade, and the only product with a chance of challenging the monopolies we know as Facebook and Twitter. As an Internet addict, I've joined every major social network there is - from Friendster (who?) to MySpace (so ugly) to LinkedIn (yawn) to Twitter (irritating) and Facebook (annoying to manage). Competition is delicious, especially between well-financed monopolies. Google+ really seems to have identified an Achille's heel...

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