Google__ The Missing Manual - Kevin Purdy [24]
When you mention someone in a post, in addition to seeing your post in her stream, the person you mentioned also gets notified about the post (exactly what form the notification takes depends on her settings; see Chapter 4 for details). (If she’s not signed up for Google+, Google+ sends her an email notification.) Also, her Google+ name (which links to her Google+ profile) is visible—and clickable—to whomever else you share the post with, unless she’s blocked them (the next section covers sharing options in detail; Blocking, Muting, and Reporting Posts explains blocking). So, your friend who likes to keep a low profile online might not appreciate you mentioning her in your posts.
To tag someone in a post, type either @ or +, and then start typing the person’s name. In the list of suggestions that appears, click her name or, if the right name is highlighted in the list, just hit the space bar or Enter key (Return on a Mac).
TIP
If you aren’t trying to mention someone, but instead just want to type a term that includes the @ or + symbol, when the list of suggested names appears, press the Esc key or click somewhere besides the list to make the list disappear.
You can mention people who aren’t in your circles, and even people who haven’t added you to their own circles, and they’ll see the post in their main stream. Do that too often or in an invasive kind of way, however, and the person you mentioned might block you (Blocking, Muting, and Reporting Posts). Also note that, when you mention somebody in a post, Google+ adds their name to the list of people and circles the post is shared with, and that you can’t remove her. (Probably Google+’s way of making sure you don’t say mean things about people.)
If you want to get really advanced, you can include hashtags in your posts, just like on Twitter. To learn about hashtags and how to add them to your posts, flip to Throw Your Post into the Mix with Hashtags.
NOTE
As of this writing, Google+ is working with other companies on tools that will let you write posts and manage various aspects of Google+ without having to go to the Google+ website or install the Google+ mobile app (see Chapter 8). Some of these tools will make it easier to post things to Google+, Facebook, Twitter, and other services simultaneously. For more information about the status of these tools, head to this book’s Missing CD page at www.missingmanuals.com/cds.
Choosing Who Sees Your Posts
AFTER YOU’VE WRITTEN THE text of your post and added any extras you want to include, it’s time to decide exactly who you want to share it with. The box above the Share button (the one with the placeholder text that begins with “+Add”) is where you determine who’s lucky enough to have access to your brilliant witticism, piece of news, or whatever you’re sharing. Before you learn exactly how to use this box to control the visibility of your posts, it’s helpful to get an overview of what it means to share with different circles and groups of people.
You may have used other social networking sites to share things with friends (on Facebook) or followers (on Twitter). Google+ is different from those kinds of sites because of the sharing and privacy controls it gives you. On Facebook and Twitter, everything you share is visible to everyone you’re connected to on the site and/or everyone on the entire Internet. In Google+, on the other hand, you create circles, your friends and contacts create circles, and the things you see in your streams represent where those circles overlap. You can share with just a