Google__ The Missing Manual - Kevin Purdy [61]
Tips for Better Hangouts
IF YOU’RE GOING TO spare the time—and the computer power—to set up a hangout with a group of friends and acquaintances (and, if you’re feeling brave, complete strangers via public hangouts), you may as well do it right. That means having the best possible connection, decent lighting, and the right spirit and etiquette to converse and lead the group along. Some hangouts are meant to be casual and loosely structured, but every hangout can benefit from a little know-how.
Here are a few tips to help you get the most out of your group video chat, drawn from your humble author’s experience on live-via-Skype talk shows.
Dig out an Ethernet cable. A wireless connection is okay for most video-chat situations. But to avoid choppiness and get the absolute smoothest video, grab a network cable and connect your laptop or desktop computer directly to one of the outgoing ports on your home router. Video connections suffer a bit from the back-and-forth bounce of a WiFi signal, but a cable connection should give you good video quality as long as you have a fast Internet connection (see the Note on Note for the minimum requirements).
Grab a USB headset. You’ll get the best possible sound if you use a head-set that plugs into a USB port on your computer. The next best thing is to use standard earbud or in-ear headphones (this can help prevent echoes and feedback). If you don’t have either of those, go ahead and talk straight at your laptop, but at least determine where your computer’s microphone is so you know where to aim. (Finding the mic can be tricky—try Googling your computer’s model number or flip through its manual)
TIP
Some computers and headsets get angry at one another on occasion, and the result is that you sound like a robot or like you’re talking into a spinning fan. If that happens, unplugging the headset and then re-plugging it usually fixes the problem.
Speak in full sentences, and wait an extra second before talking. If you’ve ever been on a conference call on a glitchy day or made a really long-distance international phone call, you’ve experience the frustration of talking over the end of someone’s sentences, and then apologizing, and then apologizing again for talking over their apology, and so on. That can occasionally happen in hangouts, especially if more than two people have joined. To help avoid that problem, try to speak in full, thought-out sentences with clear conclusions, and occasionally remind others to try the same.
Get lots of light behind your camera. Webcams don’t do so hot in low lighting, and your face can end up indistinct if the light is behind your head. Try to set things up so there’s an ample light source behind the camera, leaving your face illuminated but not washed out.
The best way to get better at hangouts is to give them a try. Talk to some friends, meet some friends-of-friends, and get used to the idea that you can use Google+’s video-chat service in a way that doesn’t feel like an job interview. Line up the camera and get to know the people in your circles.
Chapter 7. Searching and Sparks
GOOGLE+ GIVES YOU CIRCLES, streams, and notification tools so you can keep up with your friends, speak your mind, and monitor and control what’s going on with your online social life. The site also gives you a way to search out people, topics, and just about anything else that’s been shared publicly by someone using Google+, whether you know the people who put it out there or not. Google+ also gives you a personalized stream of news articles and blog posts, dubbed sparks, and the ability to make your own news and commentary into potential search results by labeling posts and photos with hashtag markers. This may