Google__ The Missing Manual - Kevin Purdy [40]
Keeping the Red Box in Check
Google+ lets you determine exactly which notifications reach your inbox and phone, but if you spend a good part of your day in your web browser, especially on Google-related sites, that little red box in the Google toolbar (The Notifications Panel), and the way it rolls over when there’s a new notification, can be hard to resist.
You can get rid of that distraction (even just temporarily) if you use Google Chrome as your browser. (To learn more about Chrome, head to www.google.com/chrome.) To do so, install the free “Hide Google+ Notification” add-on from the Chrome Web Store (https://chrome.google.com/webstore), and the gray/red box is gone. If you want to get the red box back, head to the main menu in Chrome (click the wrench icon on the right side of the main toolbar), mouse over the Tools menu, and then choose Extensions to disable or uninstall Hide Google+ Notification.
Scaling Back Email and Mobile Notifications
A lot of people leave themselves far too open to distraction on their web-connected phones. As noted above, Google+ gives you different settings to control which notifications you receive on your Android device, iPhone, or by SMS, and which notifications you receive by email. (Those settings don’t have any effect on the master list of notifications that shows up in the notifications panel and Notifications stream in your computer’s web browser.) Don’t configure Google+ so that it sends you every kind of notification about every little thing that happens, or you’ll become dulled to all the bulletins and won’t notice when something you actually care about happens.
Here are some ways to keep the volume of notifications manageable: Head to the Google+ settings page and set things up so you only get phone notifications about posts where you’re mentioned, photos where you’re tagged, or posts specifically shared with you. Save notifications about comments and +1s on your posts, comments on posts you’ve commented on, and other non-direct happenings for email—and, as mentioned earlier (Making Notifications Less Intrusive), consider creating a filter so these notifications don’t constantly make your inbox look like it has unread messages. Finally, completely turn off notifications for things like “Comments on a photo after I comment on it.” You’ll still get these notifications in your notifications panel and Notifications stream, unless you’ve set things so you only get notifications from certain circles (Controlling Which Notifications You Receive)—and even then, it’s probably not vital that you see someone else’s comment on your comment, which probably wasn’t a deeply thought-out essay.
Now you’ve got a sense of how to keep in touch and up-to-date on Google+without having to quit your day job. Next up, you’ll learn how to add photos and tag the folks in them so you can give other people a little smile when they check their notifications.
Chapter 5. Sharing Photos and Videos
HOW EASY IS IT TO SHARE PHOTOS WITH friends and family through Google+? Depending on what you shoot your photos with and where you keep them, the answers range from “easy” to “very easy.” Seriously—Google+ makes it super simple to share photos with people, whether or not they use Google+. You get unlimited space to post photos and videos, handy tools to make them look better, and a very slick page for showing them off. If you have an Android phone or use Google’s Picasa Web Albums, the photo and video features of Google+ will feel like second nature. If you’re an iPhone owner or Flickr fan instead—or even if you’ve never posted photos before—this chapter will still have you uploading photos in no time.
Just as with posts, you have a lot of control over who gets to see the photos and videos you post on Google+. So you can share snapshots and movies with friends to remind them of all the fun you had at the cabin last weekend—while making