Google+: The Missing Manual

Chapter 2. Managing Contacts with Circles

NOW THAT YOU’VE GOT YOUR PROFILE SET UP, you’re ready to explore circles, the heart of Google+. Circles are groups of contacts that you organize however you like. You can give your circles whatever names make sense to you, since the people in them can’t see these names. You probably already make circles in your head whenever you’re looking to make plans: the friends with young kids who probably aren’t free, the friends who don’t get along with each other, the friends who live in another city, the relatives who are loving and dear but almost certainly won’t fit in with your friends who obsess over True Blood.

Note

Other people can’t see who you put in which of your circles (unless you intentionally share a circle, as explained on Sharing Circles), but they can see the people you’re connected with on Google+—unless you hide this info. Editing Your Profile explains how.

Circles let you easily share info with folks who actually care about it, and let you restrict sensitive tidbits to just a trusted few. For example, when you’re dying to tell the world about the amazing new coffee blend you discovered at your local roaster, you can write a post about it and then share that post only with your Foodies and Friends circles, knowing that coworkers in the Better Future Corp. circle look down on such frivolity. Likewise, you can be sure when you’re looking through posts by people in your Friends circle that you won’t see any research summaries on cybernetic ...