How to filter google plus stream using Circles

Creating Circles is one of the features I like the most in Google+, apart from Hangouts. You can create as many circles as you want like Family, Friends, Co-Workers etc. You can also add a person in two different circles. The best thing about it is no one else can see which circle they are in, except you.

When you sign in to Google+, the stream you see by default is the mix up of all the people you have in your circles called "Stream". Although, you can check out the stream of each circle manually by clicking on the circle name in the left sidebar.

If you want to view posts in your Google+ stream from only selected circles, all you have to install is Plus Minus extension for Google Chrome browser. This extension lets you filter which circles show up in your Google + stream. Once you’ve installed this extension, it will add checkboxes next to the name of every circle in the left sidebar.

You can uncheck those circles whose posts you don’t wish to see in your main Google+ stream. Circle names on the left sidebar is still clickable and you can still check out the stream of each circle. Plus Minus adds many more features to Google+. It adds 3 links – Expand, Shrink and Wide at the top of your Google+ stream. Clicking on the ‘Expand’ and ‘Shrink’ links will expand or collapse all the posts.

For Wide-screen view, click the ‘Wide’ link in the top-right section of your stream. You can switch to normal-view by clicking on the ‘Normal’ link. If you aren’t getting checkboxes in the left sidebar, refresh the page or open Google+ in new tab or if you have any other extension installed for Google+, try disabling it to check Plus Minus extension. You can download Plus Minus extension here.

Google+ Approaches 18 Million Users [REPORT]

Google+ continues to set records as the fastest-growing social network in history, but Google’s social juggernaut is beginning to show signs that it’s losing steam.

Ancestry.com co-founder Paul Allen (not to be confused with the Microsoft co-founder of the same name) posted his most recent analysis of Google+’s growth on his Google+ account Tuesday. According to his analysis, the search giant’s Facebook competitor will likely reach 18 million users by the end of Tuesday, but its growth rate has dropped by 50% from its peak.

“Last week we saw two days where more than 2 million signed up in a single day,” Allen said in his post. “If that rate had continued, Google+ would have reached 20 million users by last Sunday night. But the last four days have averaged only 948,000 new users, and yesterday the site added only 763,000. Yesterday’s growth of 4.47% was the slowest viral growth since Google op

ened up invites back on July 6.”

SEE ALSO: GOOGLE+: THE COMPLETE GUIDE | VIDEOS | REVIEW

Why is Google+’s growth slowing down? Google Trends indicates that the buzz around Google+ has died down some, which is natural for any major news item. Allen makes the important point that Google+ hasn’t been promoted by any of its other properties and that the social network is still invite-only. Once Google+ is promoted on YouTube or on Google.com, its growth may simply skyrocket.

Allen estimated that Google+ hit the 10 million user mark sometime on June 12 or 13. Google CEO Larry Page confirmed that Google+ had more than 10 million users during an investor earnings call on July 14. Its most followed user, Mark Zuckerberg, now has more than 250,000 followers, despite not posting a single public item on his Google+ account.

Google Plus Mentions Beat Buzz? But Not Facebook Or Twitter?

If you think the buzz around Google+ is bigger than it was for Google Buzz, then you’re right. But if you think Google+ is monopolizing social media conversation, you’re way off.

That’s the gist of new research from Sysomos, a social media analytics firm. At Mashable‘s request, Sysomos compared the social media chatter for Google Buzz when it launched in February 2010 to Google+’s introduction this summer.
There’s little comparison between the two launches, according to Sysomos. Google Buzz’s social media mentions peaked at 150,00 while Google+ surpassed 250,000 mentions.

Since its launch a couple of weeks ago, Google+ has garnered more than 106,000 mentions in blogs, close to 30,000 news stories, and 1.9 million tweets. Some 85% of those combined mentions were positive. Those findings were published on Sysomos’s blog on Thursday.
Now for the bad news. Google+’s mentions are nowhere near as prevalent as Facebook’s and Twitter’s. Each of those services gets more than twice as many mentions per day as Google+.
Sheldon Levine, community manager for Sysomos, says he was surprised at the findings. “From my perspective, it seemed like everyone was talking about Google+ a lot,” says Levine. “But it could just seem that way inside the social media world.”


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