Jul 7, 2011

Enhance your Google+ in 10 ways

"Now you can enjoy Google+ in more better way"


Here are the 10 most exiciting features that makes your G+ account more enjoyable !

Surplus

Surplus is a Chrome extension that once installed is a small icon that will sit next to your address bar and tell you how many notifications you have waiting.

But it’s not just an “unread count”, pressing on the icon lets you see your latest notifications and lets you share with your Google+ circles straight from the drop down box. You can manage which circles you share to, add images, video, and links, and basically do everything that you would do from the share box within Google+. Very clever.
The only thing it’s missing is a Google+ this page button, that would let you share the page you were on without having to cut and paste the link, and the ability to Twitter or Facebook at the same time. We’ve put in those requests to the developers already.

+Photo Zoom

+Photo Zoom is a simple extension providing fast and simple zooming for photos within your Google+ Stream and ideal if you’re struggling without your glasses.

 Once installed all you have to do is hover over an image in your stream, and hey presto it’s considerably larger allowing you to see it without having to click on it. It’s really clever and a must have if the people you follow are always posting images. Especially small images.

Extended Share for Google Plus

One of the biggest wants from those that are already using Google Plus is that they’ve already got Twitter and Facebook accounts, and therefore the chore of now keeping all three running at the same time is a burden. It’s a tough life we know, but Extended Share for Google Plus goes someway to trying to solve that problem.

We’ve personally had mixed results with this Chrome extension, but the idea is that it will let you share your Google+ updates with Twitter and Facebook at the press of a button.
Until Google opens up Google+ to developers properly, this is the best you are going to get for the time being.

Tweets +1

This is reverse Google+ enhancing. Install this extension and when you go to Twitter.com you’ll be able to +1 tweets you see thanks to a new icon that appears on the page next to tweets.

It’s quick, simple, and easy to use, as long as you use Twitter.com. This doesn't obviously help you if you use a dedicated Twitter client like Twitter for Mac or Twitter for PC.

Notification Count for Google Plus

If you aren’t fussed about sharing content from an extension like Surplus, then Notification Count for Google Plus is more for you. It’s a simple icon that lets you know how many notifications you’ve got in Google+ waiting for you.

Nothing more, nothing less, but a bit redundant when compared to Surplus.

+1 Button

If you’re using Google+, chances are you’re also using Google +1 and this is an extension that allows you to quickly +1 any page on the web. 

Once installed a new +1 icon will appear at the end of your address bar allowing you to plus one the page in question without having to try and find a plus one button on the page itself.
Those plus ones will appear in your Google+ account for all to see.

Google Plus bar colour changer extension

Not an official Chrome extension, but nonetheless handy if it’s your thing. What does the Google Plus bar colour changer extension do exactly? Well it lets you change the colour of the black bar in Google+ to a different colour like blue, green, or pink.

Yep, completely pointless you might say, but still if you find yourself having a massive aversion to the black bar this will be the one for you.

Google + Facebook

If you’re feeling remorse for leaving Facebook and going Google+ there is a way to deal with your bad feelings and that’s to make Google+ look like Facebook.

Some, of course, will say that it already does, but that’s nothing compared to what they will say to this custom makeover that you can install with a bit of Chrome jiggery-pokery.
The finished result is a Google+ interface that looks like it’s actually Facebook. We wonder if Google+ user Mark Zuckerberg is running it so people in the office can’t tell he’s using the new competing service?

SyncPad For Google+

If you’re a fan of SyncPad, an app described by the company as a "Facetime for drawings” then you’ll be pleased to know that you can get it as an extension for both Chrome and Safari, allowing you to add it to Hangouts which will enable you to share your drawing skills with others in your circles.

Liquid G+

If the thought of having to scroll down the page to see what your friends are saying is too much, Liquid G+ will take that single column style and give you three columns instead.

Why? We aren’t sure. But like the Google to Facebook hack this changes the appearance of your Google+ page as long as you are happy to do some tweaking with code. Not one for the quick press of a button and we can’t personally see why you would want it, but someone must have because someone built it in the first place.

Motorola Droid 3: Finally its here

"After a series of leaks it finally on verizon website for sale  "



The Droid 3 is a Gingerbread handset, boasting a five-row QWERTY keyboard and rocking a 1GHz dual-core TI OMAP chip.
It packs a 4-inch qHD 960x540 display and has 16GB of onboard storage - which is handy because you'll be eating up plenty of space by storing the 1080p videos that it is capable of recording. It also has an 8-megapixel camera for stills, with auto-focus and face recognition and a front facing cam for video calling.
Connectivity on the Verizon version is All–Digital, 800/1900, CDMA EVDO rev A and GSM 850/900/1800/1900 UMTS, Wi-Fi, DLNA and Bluetooth 2.1 and it has a 1540mAH Li–Ion battery.
Verizon is selling the Motorola Droid 3 for $459.99 on a rolling monthly deal, $199.99 on a 2-year contract. No word as of yet with regards to a UK release - we'll keep you updated though. 



Mark Zuckerberg on Google+ 'Circles'


"Google+ 'Circles' may not be sufficient to beat Facebook"


Speaking after Facebook launched new chat products on Wednesday, Zuckerberg pointed a finger at the 'Circles' in of Google+, which had been touted as the killer feature that made a differentiation with the Facebook model.


The definition of groups is  " everyone inside the group knows who else is in the group," Zuckerberg said. The Facebook founder has always said the idea of asking users to create and maintain group is an impractical one. Here, in the Google+ model, this is exactly what happens.

The core theme behind Circles is that people don't want to share all information to everyone they know and that they would rather want to share select pieces of information to various people in their friends list. For this they need to create groups and share information accordingly. This is pretty similar to the Twitter model of asymmetric sharing whereas Facebook follows the symmetric pattern under which everyone knows who all are in the group.

"Circles are one-way, or asymmetric. Everyone sets up their own Circles and nobody knows whose Circle they are in," writes tech analyst Erick Schonfeld in TechChrunch

Zuckerberg closed in on this apparent flaw in the Google+ model. If everyone doesn’t know who are in the 'group', and more importantly, if nobody knows which group they are in, how can this be called a group?

Google presented Google+ to help users come as close to the experience of real time sharing as possible. "Not all relationships are created equal. So in life we share one thing with college buddies, another with parents, and almost nothing with our boss," according to Google.

via IBT

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