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Google+ Pro Tips Weekly Round Up: Getting Information on Google

Dec 8, 2011 10:20 PM

Google+ is taking over more and more of Google's core properties. This week, we've seen several announcements from Google blogs about new products, new features, new looks, new integrations. If you're like me, you actually want to know where to go for all the latest information on Google products.

Google Blogs & Pages

There are two ways to keep with news from Google. One is to follow their many blogs, and another is to follow their pages on Google+. For Google blogs, you can start with the Google blog directory, or check out the most relevant ones below:

Sometimes the content from a blog post on one of these Google blogs is also cross-posted to their Google+ page. So if you want, you can just follow the relevant Google+ page.

You can also check out the YouTube directory, and (ironically) the various Facebook pages and Twitter feeds for Google products.

Google+ Updates

Google continues to refine the Google+ experience, and integrate Google+ into various Google products. +Google+ Your Business held a Q&A where they discussed some of the most frequently requested features, and gave us answers. Page admins who have been complaining about the lack of multi-admin capability, rejoice! It'll be available before the end of the year. Scheduling or auto-posting, and events integration are not currently in the works, but they're thinking about it. Analytics for your page, and managing your page from your mobile phone are both items on the to-do list.
According to AllThingsD, Facebook lost the chance to promote the latest Kabam game, "The Godfather: Five Families" to Google+. +Satyajeet Salgar introduced The Godfather: Five Families yesterday, as an exclusive Google+ game. The game takes place ten years before the events of the movie, and you get to play as one of the warring five families in New York.
+Jarrko Oikarinen (creator of IRC) tells us that there's a cool new feature on Hangouts with extras: you can now call people from a hangout. Phone calls within the US and Canada are free.
+Linda Lawrey discovered a minor, but useful tweak to the Google+ interface. When you flag a comment, you'll get a message that the comment will now be reviewed.
+Jeff Dean announced an improvement to user suggestions in Google+. When you add someone to your circles, you'll also get suggestions for people you might find interesting based on the person you just added.
For those of you interested in sharing photos, +Roshni Malani introduced the latest cool feature to Google+ Photos: you can now share your photo albums by generating a link to the photo album. +Allen Firstenberg raised a few questions about the privacy and security issues associated with generating a link to private albums, but ultimately came to the conclusion that while imperfect, this feature was not worth panicking over. Make sure to check out +Yonatan Zunger's explanation of how security works with this feature.
Another new Google+ Photos feature is Find My Face. +Matt Steiner explains that when you turn on Find My Face, you can prompt people you know to tag pictures of you whenever they're uploaded. The feature can be turned on or off, and you have the ability to approve or reject tags.
Your Gmail contacts are getting further integrated with Google+. Over the next week, a new version of the contacts feature will be unveiled, and you'll be able to see your circles in your email, on the left-hand side. When you write an email to someone in your circles, you'll be able to see their shared post on the right-hand side. And, if they've updated their information on their Google+ profile, it'll automatically and conveniently update your contact information for them.

Photo by weesen

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