Much has been said about how Twitter and Facebook should be worried about Google’s behemoth social network which gained10 millionfollowers in 16 day, as compared to Twitter’s 780 days, and Facebook’s even longer 852 days. But like any new service online, people may be signing up and doing very little with their accounts. In fact, they’re probably the same people who signed up for a Twitter account, updated once with something along the lines of “I’m just trying to figure this Twitter thing out,” and disappeared just as fast leaving in their wake a sad little egg avatar and little else.
But Google+ launched just barely under a month ago, and the sheer volume of extensions, third party sites and enhancements that have already emerged may be proof of the social network’s staying power. If this list is anything to go by, people like Google+, and they’re willing to make the effort to improve the experience for all involved. So in no particular order, here is a list of ways to do just that.
Change Google+’s appearance
Improve Google+’s UI and functionality
The following extensions will let you tweak Google+ to suit your preferences. Add features that are missing, improve on existing features, and get the most out of your Google+ experience.
Guy Wyant, the developer behind the extension, suggests an even better way to use it. Since there’s technically no messaging system on Google+ beyond sharing posts with just one person, if you star posts shared with you exclusively, they appear in a sidebar on your Google+ page, much like an inbox. Unfortunately Circlestar does have its issues. The ability to star posts tends to disappear every now and then, reappearing only when you refresh the page.
Press “+” for +1’ing a post.
Press “-” for removing your +1 on a post.
Press “p” to toggle your +1 on a post.
Press “s” to share a post.
Press “e” to expand older comments on a post.
Sync Google+ with other services
One of the first questions that seemed to be popping up the minute that Google+ launched was how to keep your posts synced with other services.
Start Google+ lets you automatically post anything you share on Google+ to both Facebook and Twitter as well, and it adds a Gmail inbox notifier in Google+ so you know when you have new mail. What’s really cool about the way the extension works is that you can easily toggle it on and off right from the share box so you don’t end up flooding your followers on Twitter or Facebook with every single post, as well as easily toggle off Twitter and Facebook appearing in your stream, accessible instead from links underneath your Sparks.
Get a vanity url
If you already had your Google profile set up before you signed up for Google+, your profile will now point to your Google+ page. If you didn’t, there are several services offering Google+ vanity urls, so you can choose the one that suits you best. With each of these services, you have to find your Google ID which you can get from the url, and you can choose whatever username you prefer. There are so many services available, you’re bound to snag your preferred username on at least one of them.
If you chooseTopl.us, your vanity url will look like this:
topl.us/username
If you chooseGplus.to, your vanity url will look like this:
gplus.to/username
If you choosePlus.ly, your vanity url will look like this:
plus.ly/username
If you choose,Goplus.us, your vanity url will look like this:
goplus.us/username
If you choosegPlusNick, your vanity url will look like this:
gPlusNick.com/username
If you choosezipl.us, your vanity url will look like this:
zipl.us/username
In addition to getting a vanity url, you can also get a specially generated RSS feed for your own Google+ posts, and a chrometoolbarto get Google+ notifications in your browser.
Find people on Google+
Ways to interact with Google+ no matter what site you’re on
If you want to share content on Google+ without having to load the site at all, there are a few extensions which can get content from Facebook, Twitter, and more, out of your browser and into the social network.
Get your online photos into Google+
Some extra Google+ Tips
If you want to use text formatting in your Google+ posts, check out the following:
What are your favourite Google+ extensions or resources? Let us know in the comments.
Story byNancy Messieh
Lesotho-born and raised, Nancy Messieh, The Next Web’s Middle East Editor, is an Egyptian writer and photographer based in Cairo, Egypt. Fol(show all)Lesotho-born and raised, Nancy Messieh, The Next Web’s Middle East Editor, is an Egyptian writer and photographer based in Cairo, Egypt. Follow her onTwitter,her siteorGoogle+or get in touch at nancy@thenextweb.com
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