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Near the top left of the Circles page, above all the people boxes, is a “Sort by” drop-down menu that lets you change the order in which Google+ sorts the people in this circle. Click this menu and you can choose to sort folks by first name, last name, relevance (explained in the following Note), or the order in which you added them. To find more people to add to this circle, you can use the “Type a name” box just above these contacts on the right, which instantly shows other people you might want to add to this circle below the list of folks already there, as quickly as you can type. Simply drag those name boxes that appear onto the appropriate circle, as explained on From the Circles page.

NOTE

How does Google+ sort your contacts by “relevance,” exactly? The folks at Google aren’t telling, but it seems to be based on whether you’ve had other interactions with those people via other Google services (you’ve traded messages in Gmail, for example, shared photos through Picasa Web Albums, or what have you). This sorting option doesn’t necessarily work too well for everyone, so try other options to sort through people and find new circle additions.

Just as on the main Circles page, you can double-click a person’s name box to see her profile, and select multiple people by clicking them in succession or drawing a box around them. Your changes are saved automatically as you move people around.

That’s how you manage the name, description, and roster of a circle, but how do you organize your circles themselves? Say you want to give a few circles priority placement when they show up in various Google+ lists and on the Circles page? You do that the same way you organize people on Google+: by dragging them around.

At the bottom of the Circles page, drag any circle in your collection to reposition it so that it’s in a higher position and easier to access when it’s time to add people or choose a group to check on. As shown here a faint gray line indicates where the circle will end up when you release your mouse.

TIP

Need some more space to figure how to arrange your circles? Put your cursor over the dotted gray line between your contacts and circles, and the cursor turns into two arrows with one or two horizontal lines between them. When you see that cursor, drag to move the divider between your contacts and your circles to provide more room for either section.

Sharing Circles

YOU’VE LEARNED ALL ABOUT creating, naming, and organizing circles, and you might never want to let people see some of your circles (like Sexist Salespeople, for instance). But maybe you’ve created a great “Chefs on Google+” circle and want to share it with all your fellow foodies. You can do that pretty easily.

At the bottom of the Circles page, click the circle you want to share so that its members are shown in boxes near the top of the page. On the right side of the page, you’ll see links for removing people, viewing profiles—and a “Share this circle” link.

When you click this link, you’ll see a box asking which of your circles you want to share this circle with (sounds like a recipe for motion sickness). You can also add a comment, which you should definitely provide so that the people you’re sharing with know why you think they should add a whole group of people they probably don’t know to a new circle.

When you click Share, you’ll be prompted to choose which other circles or people you want to share your circle members with. Note that it’s just the members of the circle you’re sharing, in a bundle—your name for the circle isn’t revealed. The people you shared the circle with will see it in their streams You’ll learn more about what people see when you share things with your circles in the next chapter.

Chapter 3. Streams, Sharing, and Privacy

THE STREAM IS THE HEART OF GOOGLE+: It’s where you go to check out the stuff that connects you to the people you know. It’s where your friends, family, acquaintances, and all the other