Mnogi od vas možda su čuli za Google+ (" Google Plus "), relativno novo mjesto za društveno umrežavanje. Ljudi ga često opisuju uspoređujući ga s drugim stranicama kao što su Facebook i LinkedIn , ali Google+ ima svoju osobnost. Poput mnogih društvenih mreža, Google+ ne dolazi s uputama za uporabu i ima puno značajki koje možda neće biti intuitivno shvatiti. Uđite^(Enter) u bivšeg urednika Lifehackera ^(Lifehacker)Kevina Purdyja^{(Kevin Purdy)} s Google+ The Missing Manual . Kao prilično novi korisnik Google+Jako me zanimalo hoće li mi ova knjiga pomoći da je bolje razumijem.

Otkrivanje:^{(Disclosure:)} Bio sam pripravnik za Lifehacker tri mjeseca dok je Kevin bio jedan od tamošnjih urednika.

NAPOMENA: ^(NOTE:) Google+ je nedavno promijenio izgled svog sučelja, tako da ilustracije u knjizi možda neće odgovarati onome što je na zaslonu. Ne zanima me to, nego pomaže li knjiga objasniti kako usluga funkcionira.

Početi na početku je uvijek dobro

Knjiga počinje lijepim jasnim objašnjenjem što Google+ jest, a što nije. Razumijevanje onoga s čime se bavite često je ključ uspjeha, a ova knjiga čitatelja brzo postavlja na čvrst teren. Iznenadio sam se kad sam vidio da Google+ različito reagira s različitim preglednicima. Iako sam očekivao da će Google Chrome biti favoriziran, činjenica da Internet Explorer ponekad ne prikazuje isti skup značajki je bila iznenađenje. To je nešto što ne bi bilo očito, a to je još jedan razlog zašto je serija Missing Manual tako uspješna. Ima dosta jasnih i šarenih ilustracija za sve, što uvijek mislim da je plus.

Čitatelj za početak ne mora imati Google račun; ^(Google)upute uključuju postavljanje. Objašnjen je svaki korak postupka, uz raspravu o značajkama koje Google+ nudi, a koje možda ne želite uključiti na svoj račun. Ovo je još jedno mjesto gdje je posjedovanje priručnika za objašnjenje stvari itekako vrijedno vremena koje je potrebno za čitanje. ( Svatko^(Anyone) tko je čitao recenzije mojih knjiga zna koliko iskreno volim čitati priručnike.)

Neka Google+ zablista (i radite stvari na svoj način)

Jedna od najkorisnijih značajki Google+krugovima^(Circles) . Krugovi su poput kontakt menadžera na steroidima. Vi u potpunosti kontrolirate koji ljudi dobivaju koje informacije od vas, a to možete učiniti mnogo brže i učinkovitije nego na mnogim drugim stranicama društvenih medija. Google+ The Missing Manual vodi vas kroz razmišljanje iza krugova^(Circles) i načine na koje biste mogli grupirati osobe na svom popisu kontakata i načine na koje možete postaviti svaki krug^(Circle) tako da osobe koje su mu dodijeljene vide samo ono što želiš da vide. Mnogi^(Many) od nas pišu stvari koje ne želimo nužno da svi vide, a jednim klikom jednostavno je dodijeliti kontakte svojimaZaokružite^(Circle) da ne padnu sa stolica kad pročitaju što ste radili. Tu je i dobro jasno objašnjenje kako možete uvesti popise kontakata s drugih web-mjesta i s drugih uređaja (kao što su vaš telefon ili tablet) uz minimalnu gužvu i gnjavažu. Nakon što sam se jednom trudio shvatiti kako da svoj popis kontakata s mog iPod Toucha^(Touch) sinkroniziram s mojim Google kontaktima^(Contacts) , poželio sam da sam imao ove upute prije dvije godine kada sam pokušavao razumjeti datoteke pomoći koje nisu bile od velike pomoći. Iako koristim Google+ nekoliko mjeseci, nisam bio svjestan da se ono što vidite kada prvi put tamo odete zove vaš Stream . Ilustracije u knjizi prikazuju oglednu stranicu koja doista ima Streamna vrhu, ali novo sučelje ne izgleda tako. (To je moja isprika što ne znam i toga se držim.) Sada ne samo da znam pravi izraz za to, već znam i mnogo više načina da prilagodim Stream tako da vidim što me najviše zanima. Već sam primijetio da Stream nije uvijek raspoređen kronološkim redom, ali nisam točno shvatio što se događa. Google+ The Missing Manual objašnjava zašto je to tako. Postoji mnogo uputa (s primjerima i ilustracijama) koje objašnjavaju kako objaviti stvari u vašem Streamu^(Stream) i kako odabrati koji će ljudi u vašim krugovima vidjeti vaše objave.

Zdravo, ja sam

Mislim da dvije osobe nisu iste kada su u pitanju obavijesti. Neki ljudi žele znati kada svaka poruka stigne, neki ljudi ne žele da im smetaju i točka, a većina ljudi pada negdje između dvije krajnosti. Google+ vam omogućuje da postavite svoje obavijesti točno onako kako želite, što je nešto što gotovo svatko može cijeniti. Još jednom Google+ The Missing Manual dolazi s uputama koje bi trebale olakšati proces gotovo svima. ( Pogodite^(Guess) što, ni ja nisam znao da postoji stream obavijesti^{(Notifications Stream)} !) Čitatelj može brzo naučiti kako postaviti razgovore te slati i primati SMS tekstualne poruke izravno s Google+. Tu je i izvrstan odjeljak koji objašnjava kako možete dijeliti i označavati fotografije i videozapise, pa čak i uređivati ​​ih nakon objave.

Druženje

Još jedna lijepa značajka Google+ je ono što nazivaju Hangouts . Stari ljudi poput mene smatraju Hangout samo još jednim imenom za "soba za razgovor", ali Hangout je puno bolji od soba za razgovor prošlih dana. Ovdje opet imate sveobuhvatne upute za postavljanje svega, uključujući koga želite uključiti, i provjeriti radi li vaša oprema ispravno. Kratko objašnjenje mobilnih aplikacija ranije u knjizi dobiva cijelo poglavlje koje ga objašnjava mnogo detaljnije pred kraj. Pokriva iOS i Android telefone i tablete te također daje upute za korištenje Google+na uređajima koji ne koriste niti jedan od tih sustava (koristeći ugrađeni preglednik uređaja). Ovo će biti vrlo korisno za ljude koji misle da su isključeni iz Google+ mobilnih uređaja jer još nemaju iOS ili Android uređaj (kao ja).

Vrijeme igranja

Google+ The Missing Manual završava se poglavljem o igranju igara. Dostupan je velik izbor igara, a u budućnosti će ih sigurno biti još. Neke igre žele više informacija od vas nego što biste mogli podijeliti, i bilo je dobro vidjeti upozorenje o tome. Neke su igre dizajnirane za igranje s drugim ljudima (s kojima možete dijeliti pozivnice), a neke su solo. Budući da će se krajolik igre vjerojatno brzo mijenjati, ovo poglavlje samo daje pregled i poziva čitatelja da isproba neke od igara ako je tako sklon.

Zamotavanje

Volio bih da sam imao ovu knjigu kad sam prvi put počeo istraživati Google+ . Nije sve u vezi s tim intuitivno i nije sve dobro objašnjeno u pomoći^(Help) . Knjiga je osmišljena da pomogne čitatelju da se osjeća ugodno sa svakom značajkom, a objašnjenja su jasna i sveobuhvatna. Šarene ilustracije su plus i siguran sam da u knjizi postoje značajke Google+ koje gotovo svi još nisu otkrili. To je pobjednik.

Presuda

Ovo je za sve koji su zainteresirani za Google+ , od početnika do iskusnih korisnika. Pokriva gotovo sve što bi netko želio znati u jednostavnom, razgovornom stilu. Osmišljen je da vas brzo pokrene i pokrene, a zatim da objasni naprednije značajke koje će mnogi ljudi htjeti istražiti. Naučio sam o nekoliko stvari koje prije nisam vidio, a ovo čuvam za buduću referencu.

Book Review - Google+ The Missing Manual

Many of you mаy have heard about Google+ ("Google Plus"), a relatively new social networking site. People often describe it by comparіng it to other sіteѕ like Facebook and LinkеdIn, but Google+ has a personality all its own. Like many social networking siteѕ, Google+ doesn't come with an instruction manυal, and іt has a lot of features that may not be intuitive to figure out. Enter fоrmеr Lifehacker editor Kevin Purdy, with Google+ The Missing Manual. As a fairly new user of Google+ I was very interested to see if this book would help me understand it better.

Disclosure: I was an intern for Lifehacker for three months while Kevin was one of the editors there.

NOTE: Google+ recently changed the look of its interface, so the illustrations in the book may not match what's on the screen. I'm not concerned with that, but whether the book helps explain how the service works.

Beginning at the beginning is always good

The book starts out with a nice clear explanation of what Google+ is and is not. Getting an understanding of what you're dealing with is often the key to success, and this book gets the reader onto solid ground quickly. I was surprised to see that Google+ reacts differently with different browsers. While I expected Google Chrome to be favored, the fact that Internet Explorer sometimes doesn't display the same set of features came as a surprise. This is something that would not be obvious, and it's another reason why the Missing Manual series is so successful. There are plenty of clear and colorful illustrations for everything, which I always think is a plus.

The reader does not have to have a Google account to begin with; the instructions include setting one up. Each step of the process is explained, with discussions of what features Google+ offers that you may and may not want to include on your account. This is another place where having a manual to explain things is well worth the time it takes to read it. (Anyone who's read my book reviews knows how genuinely fond I am of reading manuals.)

Making Google+ shine (and do things your way)

One of Google+'s most useful features is what they call Circles. Circles are kind of like a contact manager on steroids. You're fully in control of which people get which information from you, and you can do this much faster and more efficiently than on many other social media sites. Google+ The Missing Manual walks you through the reasoning behind Circles, and the ways in which you might want to group the people on your contact list, and the ways in which you can set up each Circle so that the people assigned to it see only what you want them to see. Many of us write things that we don't necessarily want everyone to see, and it's one-click simple to assign contacts to their own Circle so that they don't fall off their chairs when they read what you've been up to. There's also a good clear explanation of how you can import contact lists from other sites and from other devices (like your phone or tablet) with minimal fuss and bother. Having once struggled to figure out how to get my contact list from my iPod Touch synced with my Google Contacts, I wished I'd had these instructions two years ago when I was trying to understand not very helpful help files. Even though I've been using Google+ for several months, I was not aware that what you see when you first go there is called your Stream. The illustrations in the book show a sample page that does indeed have Stream at the top of it, but the new interface doesn't look like that. (That's my excuse for not knowing and I'm sticking to it.) Now I not only know the right term for it, I know many more ways to customize the Stream so I see what interests me most. I had already noticed that a Stream isn't always arranged in chronological order, but hadn't figured out quite what was going on. Google+ The Missing Manual explains why this is. There are plenty of instructions (with examples and illustrations) to explain how to post things to your Stream and how to choose which people in your Circles will see your posts.

Hello, it's me

I don't think any two people are alike when it comes to notifications. Some people want to know when every single message arrives, some people don't want to be bothered, period, and most people fall somewhere between the two extremes. Google+ lets you set up your notifications exactly the way you want, which is something just about everyone can appreciate. Once again Google+ The Missing Manual comes through with instructions that should make the process easier for just about everyone. (Guess what, I didn't know there was a Notifications Stream, either!) The reader can quickly learn how to set up chats and send and receive SMS text messages right from Google+. There is also an excellent section that explains how you can share and tag photos and videos and even edit them after they are posted.

Getting together

Another nice feature of Google+ is what they call Hangouts. Old-timers like me think of Hangout as just another name for "chat room," but a Hangout is a lot better than the chat rooms of days gone by. Here again, having comprehensive instructions for setting everything up, including whom you want to include, and making sure your equipment is working properly. The brief explanation of mobile apps earlier in the book gets an entire chapter explaining it in much more detail toward the end. It covers iOS and Android phones and tablets and also gives instructions for using Google+ on devices that use neither of those systems (by using the device's built-in browser). This will be very useful for people who might think they're shut out of Google+ mobile because they don't yet have an iOS or Android device (like me).

Play time

Google+ The Missing Manual concludes with a chapter about playing games. There's quite an assortment of games available, and there will surely be more in the future. Some games want more information from you than you may care to share, and it was good to see a warning about that. Some games are designed to be played with other people (with whom you can share invitations) and some are solo. Since the game landscape is likely to change rapidly, this chapter just gives an overview and invites the reader to try some of the games out if so inclined.

Wrapping it up

I wish I'd had this book when I first started exploring Google+. Not everything about it is intuitive, and not everything is explained well in the Help. The book is designed to help the reader feel at ease with each feature, and the explanations are clear and comprehensive. The colorful illustrations are a plus and I'm sure there are Google+ features in the book that nearly everyone hasn't discovered yet. It's a winner.

Verdict

This is for everyone who's interested in Google+, from novice to experienced user. It covers nearly everything anyone would want to know in an easy, conversational style. It's designed to get you up and running quickly and then to explain the more advanced features that many people will want to explore. I've learned about several things I hadn't seen before, and I'm keeping this close by for future reference.

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