I’ve been using Google Plus (add me to your circles here) for a few days, and already I’ve become addicted to it. I may never return to Facebook again (and may even give up Twitter after more people move to G+). Google Plus has a clean, streamlined interface. It also makes sharing information with specific groups of people much easier than most other social networking sites do. Nevertheless, Google Plus presents a few annoying issues that, as a user, I would love to see resolved soon.
#1 – It’s hard to find like-minded people
You can search for people by keywords in their profiles, such as their job description, place of employment, city, etc. Unfortunately, it’s somewhat difficult to find people based on their interests, the subject matter of their posts, and the types of people they follow.
Proposed Solution #1: Hash tags – I would love to see hash tags (such as #technology or #politics) made clickable and searchable in Google Plus. For example, if I include hash tags at the end of my post (say, following a hyphen or colon character), Google Plus should identify the individual tags, remove them from the text of my post, and turn them into clickable hash-tag search links just below the posting. Clicking on one of these links should display the most recent posts that carry the same hash tag. I should be able to filter this list of posts to include or exclude public posts by people not in my circles.
Proposed Solution #2: Search People by Sparks – In Google Plus, Sparks let you specify one or more topics for which you would like to periodically read new and interesting information. According to Google, it provides "a feed of just the stuff you’re really into, so when you’re free, there’s always something waiting to be watched, read, or shared." It would be really nice to have a way to search for other Google Plus members based on their Sparks (interests). It would also be nice for Google to recommend people to follow based on the number of Sparks we have in common.
#2 – The +1 button doesn’t really mean anything yet
That cute little button that appears under every post in Google Plus may offer readers a way to "approve" or "agree" with something they’ve read, and it may provide some minor feedback to the original poster about the popularity of his post, but right now it doesn’t really do much more than that. For example, you can’t easily find out who is "plussing" you the most, or which posts and topics generate the most interest.
Proposed Solution: Google Plus Stats – Google, the company that gives us Google Trends, Google Zeitgeist, and other useful statistical tools, should give each of us a personalized Google Plus Stats page. Taking cues from Flickr or WordPress, the Google Plus Stats page should show me interesting stuff such as:
- Your posts and comments that have received the most +1′s in the past day, week, month, and year.
- Your friends’ posts that have received the most +1′s in the past day / week / month / year. (It would be nice to be able to select any specific circle, or All Circles, and see the top vote-getting posts from among that group of people.)
- Public posts (among all users of Google Plus) that have received the most +1′s in the past day / week / month / year.
- The Top 20 people from whom you’ve received +1′s in the past day / week / month / year.
- The Top 20 external web pages (news stories, web sites, etc.) that have received +1′s from your friends in the past day / week / month / year.
#3 – No easy way to post the current web page I’m reading
When I come across something on the web that I would like to share 
with my Google Plus friends, I have to copy the URL, switch over to Google Plus, start a new post, click the Link button, and paste in the URL of the page I want to share. Although this does not represent a tremendous burden, it’s enough to inhibit sharing some times.
Proposed Solution: Bookmarklets, Browser Extensions, or a Built-in shortcut key in Chrome – Since I use Google’s Chrome web browser, why not just build in support for Google Plus right into the browser itself? Give me a shortcut key and/or a button in the address bar to let me quickly share the current page with my G+ friends.
#4 – It’s hard for subject-oriented communities to form
This item relates strongly to item #1 at the top of this list. Unless someone is a celebrity, I probably don’t know whether or not I should start following her based on our common interests. Sure, I can get a gist of the person’s interests from her profile, but that may not necessarily correspond with the topics she likes to discuss online.
Proposed Solution: Public, Opt-In Circles – Google should let us configure an individual circle as public, and allow people to request membership in the circle, either with automatic approval (pure opt-in circles,) or with approval from the circle’s owner (moderated opt-in circles.) The owner of a public circle should be allowed to name any of the other members as administrators of the circle, and anyone with administrator authority should be able to add or approve additional members (if the circle doesn’t feature automatic approval.)
This way, I could create a circle called "Weight Loss Tips" or "Funny Pictures" and allow anyone who wants to become a member to join the circle, simply by clicking "join circle". Of course for this to work, all public circles must appear in the owner’s user profile, and Google must provide a search function to help people find public circles. For comparison, think Flickr Groups or Facebook Pages.
#5 – Your Stream can get very noisy, very quickly
Currently, Google shows you posts from everyone you follow, or posts from one particular circle. In many cases, the former fills your stream with too much noise, and the latter doesn’t provide enough recent updates to maintain engagement.
Proposed Solution: More granular control of the Stream – In particular, it would help if Google would place check boxes next to each circle, so that we could turn on or off multiple circles. For example, I might like to see what members of my Friends circle and members of my Family circle are doing right now, without having to switch from one to the other. For the sake of usability, Google should also provide a way to check/uncheck all circles.
Finally, while I have your attention
Here are a few other miscellaneous problem-solving features I would like to see in Google Plus:
- Threaded (nested, reply-to) comments.
- The ability to schedule events, invite people, and integrate the events into the Google Calendar.
- Gmail inbox as a "channel" in the stream. It would be VERY nice to be able to see my Gmail inbox items in my stream, just like all the posts by people in one of my circles. After all, the inbox is just another queue of incoming information.
- Better integration with Google Reader – I should be able to share items from Google Reader to Google Plus with a single click, and Google should remember which circles I shared with last. Ideally, Google will remember the most recent circle selection for each individual Reader folder from which I have shared something. That way, if I share items from my "Libertarian" folder in Reader with my "Politics" circle in Plus, Google will propose the "Politics" circle the next time I share an item from that folder, but will propose another circle if I share something from my "Technology" folder, for example.
I was thinking many of the same things. Why is it we come to these conclusions in less than a week, but some people inside Google say they’ve been alpha-testing G+ for a year?
Probably cuz they kept the project on the down low, so these same people were working on it day in and day out. We are their test models. Let’s just hope they listen and make the changes. Great solutions to those problems. They should be calling you for a job! ;p
Dear Google God, please DO NOT integrate my Gmail inbox into my G+ stream. I am counting on G+ to save me from the avalanche of stuff still being pushed at me through email. I want OUT of that jail of never-ending lines of things I’m supposed to open and respond to blindly.
There is a chrome extension, while not officially made by google it’s very nice and easy to use that automatically pastes the url of the current page when you want to post an update the link is: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pfphgaimeghgekhncbkfblhdhfaiaipf
Still haven’t figured out how to introduce 2 of my friends, ie, Facebook’s recommend button.
A friend of mine liked your list (as do I), but he reminded me of one more problem that we both noticed right from day one. If notifications are on (the default), you receive an email from the poster that includes the body of the post, and to all intents and purposes looks like an email from the poster.
Except, if you look closely at the actual return address, you will see that it is a G+ constructed “noreply” return address that nevertheless appears as if it came from the poster. One’s natural inclination is to reply to the post, and sometime later you get an “email rejected” bounceback in your inbox. Not too terrible once you figure it out and (if you are a G+ member) and go to G+ to reply.
For non members they get the same noreply email (with an invite to join G+ included), and since they are not G+ members, their confusion is greater, and their response options are correspondingly limited. In these early days many of us are likely to have non-members in our circles. My experience is also that about 80% of those receiving shares from me decline to take up the G+ invite; and there are some not in my circles whom I nevertheless choose to share certain posts with using their email address.
It would be far better IMO if the notification email were “replyable”, but that the reply end up as a G+ comment to the original post instead of an email back to the poster.
The integration with gmail and reader sound great and I’m sure they are coming down the pipe sometime in the future. Going to be harder and harder to leave the Google Universe pretty soon.
My biggest complaint is that public posts still go to your circles. You put people in circles so you can tailor your content for them, but if you want to put out something “public”, it doesn’t mean people in your circles need or want to see it.
Exactly my needs!
Pretty sure all this will be enabled soon.
dont know why the G+ share icon isnt at the bottom of every web item…surprised with that. Easy to share stuff from my Evo device straight to G+. Not so on laptop
I hope G+ can add “exclude” function.
Whenever i start adding people , G+ gets slower.
Those are GREAT suggestions! Well thought out.
Since the original post here, Google has made some progress on the first 3 suggestions. The +1 has been enhanced to allow posting web pages to circles, and that button has started to appear on many web pages. Chrome add-ons allow for +1′s on pages that don’t have the button built in. +1 has (as of yesterday) also been added to google reader.
G+ find has been improved to search beyond people it now can search profiles, posts, and sparks. Hashtag support has also been added.
For item #4 they have added “circle sharing”, but that doesn’t really satisfy me — I still would prefer public topic-oriented circles.
Very little has been done with stream filtering and management (item #5). Some chrome add-ons attempt to help, but the lack of a robust G+ API makes these very unstable in the face of frequent Google upgrades to G+.