Over the past thirteen years, online social media has gone from a niche interest to an Internet norm, becoming an integral part of the existence of millions of people around the world. And like everything in the online world, social media has undergone continuous evolution- from chat-rooms to Myspace, to Facebook and now most recently to Google Plus. Google Plus is an all-encapsulating account service where your email links in to your profile, which connects to other social media sites so that everything is bundled together for your convenience. Read on to find out what Google’s doing right!

Profiles

One of the great things about Google Plus that sets it apart from other social media and organizer competitors is the breadth and diversity of its profile features. Using a Google Plus profile you can effectively link to and connect with all your other online profiles, such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and others. What’s better yet, you can embed links in your profile to other addresses with no cost, and can choose which words you want to trigger the hyperlink. So in a way, Google Plus is like a management system for all the different online profile accounts you have.

Circles

Now the Circles feature of Google Plus is a bit like the friends network you might have on Facebook or Twitter, but with a few slight twists. For starters, the Circles feature is of a grass-roots nature, meaning that your circle recommendations only include people Google believes you actually know well, are related to and so on. You can then choose what information (if any) you wish to share with given circles, and Google offers three pre-classifications of family, friends and acquaintances so you can moderate which group has access to what information. And of course, you can move people in and out of circles with a simple mouse click and drag.

Communities

Google Plus also allows you to create online social, work and interest-based discussion boards through its Communities feature. These boards operate in a similar way to forums and you can choose the type of access people can have to a Community you create. For instance, you can create open community groups that anyone can join, communities that people need permission to join, locked groups that are publicly visible and finally, hidden locked groups. So there’s a type of Community access setting to suit any and all needs you might have.

Photos

Perhaps one of the most exciting perks of having a Google Plus account is the ability to upload and categorise photos in ways previously unprecedented on social networking sites. You can easily host photos on your Google Plus account and can send them to your account either from a computer or a range of mobile devices. The most amazing thing about the Photos feature though is that you can actually instruct Google to automatically filter through your photos and create albums or only display photos with certain characteristics. So, for example, you might only want photos to be visible where everybody looks happy, or you might want to create a motion video from a serious of still photos. Google will do all this for you, and all you have to do is tell it what to look for.

With all these features and more, you’d be crazy not to get started with a Google Plus account today. It’s easy to use, it’s free and its also the cutting edge of the social media world right now!

Featured images:

• Photo provided by: Guest blogging community

Jane Thompson is an Arts student who recently bought a smartphone with the help of a loan from Flexirent, and she accesses her Google Plus account on her phone daily to manage all her social media needs and stay in touch.

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