Google__ The Missing Manual - Kevin Purdy [5]
As of this writing, Google+ is in beta, which means that some features might not work properly and some features may change abruptly. One aspect of Google+ that has changed since the site first launched is that you’re no longer required to have an invitation from somebody already set up with a Google+ account. Here are your options:
If you have an invitation email, the process is slightly different depending on whether you use Gmail. Whatever kind of email address you have, click the red “Join Google+” button in the invitation email. Here’s what happens next:
If you use Gmail you’ll see the box shown here, which already has your first name and last name filled in.
If you have an email address for your company or organization’s Google Apps setup (in other words, you sign into a site like www.google.com/a/something.com to get to your email), you can sign in with that account—just enter your full name@something.com email address in the email field.
If you use an email provider other than Gmail, you’ll see the Join Google+ screen. Click the red Sign In button to display the “Sign in with your Google Account” screen. Enter the full email address you used to create your Google account and your password, and then click the “Sign in” button. This takes you to the screen shown here.
NOTE
If you like, you can invite others to join Google+. The box on Inviting Friends explains how.
If you don’t have an invitation, simply head to www.plus.google.com. Click the red Sign In button and, on the page that appears, enter the full email address you used to create your Google account and your password, and then click the “Sign in” button. This takes you to the screen shown here.
TIP
If typing web addresses by hand that isn’t your idea of a good time, go to this book’s Missing CD page at www.missingmanuals.com/cds (yes, you’ll have to type that one by hand—sorry), where you’ll find a clickable list of all the web addresses mentioned in this book.
GEM IN THE ROUGH: INVITING FRIENDS
Even though you don’t need an invitation to join Google+, sending invitations to friends who aren’t yet members can help them get started more quickly, and gives you more people to interact with. To send an invite, log into Google+ and then click the Google+ logo at the top of the screen to make sure you’re on your Home page. On the right side of that page, click the “Invite friends” button. (If you don’t see this button, don’t panic: It’s likely to disappear in the near future, since having an invitation is no longer a requirement for joining Google+.)
The dialog box that appears gives you a couple of options: You can invite friends individually by clicking the “+ Add people to invite” field and either typing out the name of someone who’s in your Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, or other address book, or typing in a few friends’ email addresses (separated by commas); either way, click “Send email” when you’re done. A more efficient method is to select the link in the lower box, copy it by pressing Ctrl+C (⌘-C on a Mac), and then heading over to a different a social networking site you use—Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or the like—and pasting it into a status update by pressing Ctrl+V (⌘-V on a Mac). That way, anyone who wants to join Google+ can do so by clicking the link in your post.
The first step in using Google + is to create a Google profile, a page that shows just a bit about you or a whole lot, depending on your preference. How much you share, and with whom, is up to you. The box that reads “To join, create a public Google profile” only asks for your first name, last name, and gender (Male, Female, or Other), and possibly your birthday. All of these fields are required. You’ll learn how to flesh out your profile starting on Fleshing Out Your Profile.
NOTE
Google+ has a fairly strict “common name” policy, at least as of this writing. That means they don’t want you to sign up under a pseudonym, brand name, parody name (God, Fake Steve Jobs), or anything other than your real name. Google isn’t reaching through your keyboard