Google__ The Missing Manual - Kevin Purdy [10]
TIP
Check out the little icons to the left of each of the visibility options. These icons appear next to each item in your profile when you’re editing it. They’re a handy way to see what level of visibility you’ve applied to each tidbit without having to click each item individually.
Some sections of your profile aren’t just text, however. Below your profile picture, you may see small images of people you’ve added to circles, and people who have added you—but it’s likely sparse, because you likely haven’t added anybody yet if you’re just getting started. Like everything else on your profile page, if you’ve clicked Edit Profile, this space includes a small globe icon you can click to change who can see your Google+ connections.
(Starting to see a trend? One of the major selling points of Google+, especially compared to other social-networking sites like Facebook, is the fine-grained control it gives you over who can see what, under what circumstances. Facebook has some settings to control stuff like this, but Google+ makes it clear what you’re letting friends, acquaintances, and complete strangers see.)
Most of the other fields on your profile are fairly self-explanatory, but here are a few that aren’t quite as obvious:
Send an email. Clicking this setting displays an “Allow people to email you from a link on your profile” checkbox. Turning on this box lets people who view your profile click the “Send an email” button and send a message to the address you used to sign up for Google+—but people who click this button never see your actual email address.
Add some photos here. Click this field, which appears below your name and tagline if you haven’t added any photos yet (and you probably haven’t), and you can upload photos from your computer (or, if available, photos from your Picasa Web Albums—see Pulling Images from Picasa Web Albums) to give viewers a look at who you are and what kinds of pants you own. The process is the same as the one you used to select your profile photo (Signing In and Joining Up); click the Add Photo square to get started.
Links. On the right side of your profile, three different sections let you show folks your work and interests, and give you a chance to link up other accounts:
“Other profiles” and connected accounts. When you click the “Other profiles” link, a box pops up that includes two options: “Add custom link” and “Manage connected accounts.” The first is a simple way to add a link to other sites where you maintain an account and post things regularly—like your blog or a forum you comment on frequently, for example. But if you regularly use Facebook, LinkedIn, or another online service, click “Manage connected accounts” to display a page that lets you connect your Google+ account to your other online accounts. You’ll learn more about importing contacts from other networks into Google+ in the next chapter, but for now, feel free to add links to your Facebook profile, LinkedIn resume, or other types of accounts listed here (click the “Connect an account” button to see more options). Doing so makes info in those other accounts show up in your Google web searches, and to make it easier to identify and add people you know on other sites to your Google+ circles.
“Contributor to” and “Recommended links”: Click either of these links if you want to add links to your favorite websites to your profile. You’ll see two text boxes: Label and URL. Type a description of the site or its name in the Label field (FC Buffalo Soccer, for example) and the web address in the URL field (www.fcbuffalo.org).
Other names. You’ll find this item near the bottom of your profile page. If people know you by a name other than the one you signed up for Google+ with—professionally, before marriage, or for any old reason—entering it here makes it easier for friends to find you, and gives your profile more context when people are searching you out.
Profile discovery. This important setting is at the very bottom of your profile—click it to see the