Google__ The Missing Manual - Kevin Purdy [14]
FRESHMAN ORIENTATION: IMPORTING CONTACTS
Google+ makes it easy to import lists of folks you already correspond with so you can add them to circles. To get started, head to the Circles page and click the “Find people” heading. When you do, the screen changes to display three icons labeled Yahoo, Hotmail, and “Upload address book.” If you use Yahoo or Hotmail, click the appropriate icon to bring up a new browser window where you can type in your username and password for that service. You then need to confirm that you want to give Google access to your Yahoo or Hotmail address book. Once you give your permission, if any of the contacts in that account are signed up for Google+ or simply have a Google account, you’ll see them in the “Find people” section of the Circles page.
Another option is to upload an address book from Outlook, Apple Mail, or some other desktop or web-based email program. Nearly every email program can export contacts as either a comma-separated values (.csv) file or a vCard (.vcf) file, and Google+ can understand both formats. Exactly how you export an address book depends on your email program, but it’s usually pretty simple. In most versions of Outlook, for example, you’ll find an Export option somewhere on the File menu. If you use Mail on a Mac, launch Address Book, select all your contacts, and then drag them onto your desktop to create a vCard file containing all their details. With your exported contact file handy, head to Google+’s Circles page and click the “Upload address book” icon. In the dialog box that appears, find the .csv or .vcf file you created and double-click it. Any of your contacts who are on Google+ will appear on the Circles page.
If you have some contacts built up in your Google account because you’ve been using Gmail, Google Chat, or some other Google service, you might see a few familiar faces on the Circles page. (If you don’t see anyone, click “Find people” near the top of the page.) These are folks who you’ve either previously contacted, or people Google thinks you might be connected to because you have a number of contacts in common.
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You can whittle down the list of people in the middle of the Circles screen by clicking “People in your circles” or “People who’ve added you” in the screen’s upper left. You probably won’t see anyone if you click “People in your circles” since you’re just getting started, but you might see a few if you click “People who’ve added you,” especially if a friend invited you to join Google+. Yup, strange as it may seem, people can actually add you to their circles before you join the site.
Don’t see any names at all, or don’t see the people you want to add? No problem. In the upper right of the Circles page, click the “Type a name” box, and then start entering the name of someone you know. As you type, Google+ displays potential matches, automatically updating its suggestions with every letter you type. The most relevant names should appear near the top—people who know one of your existing contacts (if you have any), people who live near you, people who’ve worked at the same companies as you, and so on.
If you see the person you’re looking for, double-click her name to jump to her profile page just to make extra sure you’ve found the right person. (Nothing’s more embarrassing than adding someone to one of your circles and then having that person contact you to ask, “Who the heck are you?”) The information you see in the profile is limited to things that she’s set as visible to “Anyone on the web” (just as you can set the visibility of items in your own profile; see Fleshing Out Your Profile). If the profile belongs to someone you know, go ahead and click the “Add to circles” button in the upper right of her profile, and then flip to Putting People in Circles for details about how to select the circle(s)