10 More Ways to Make the Most of Your Google + Account

 by Amy-Mae Elliott

Take a look through the gallery and share in the comments any suggestions you have for improving the G+ experience.

1. Check Your "Added to Circle" Notifications

A good way to ensure you don't miss any important circle additions is to hit up the "People who've added you" view every once in while.

To see this on your profile, click on the circles tab and then select the option. Once you're in this view, you can click on the drop down menu to view "Not yet in circles."

This will bring you the people that have circled you, but that you haven't circled in return. It's an at-a-glance method to catch anyone that might have slipped through your circle net.

2. Filter Your Notifications

The main "notifications" view is useful but it can be a little cluttered to work through with all of those overlapping updates in one list

You can actually filter those notifications by clicking the "More" drop-down option at the top right of your page.

Being able to view mentions, photo tags, posts by you, posts by others and circle additions is a lot more useful than the default view.

3. Select the Correct Thumbnail

When you add a link to a post, Google+ doesn't always automatically select the correct thumbnail to go with the content.

Before you hit share, make sure the thumb is right. If it doesn't, click on the arrows that appear on the top left of the image to scroll through the options.

Alternatively, hitting the "X" removes the thumbnail from your post altogether.

4. Save Time With the Notifications Toolbar Icon

The handy notifications icon on your Google+ toolbar can save you tons of time.

Once you've hit the icon, you can see more notifications by using the left and right arrows to scroll. You can even save time by adding comments from the notification window.

5. Tag People in Photos

It's not immediately obvious how to tag people in your Google+ photos.

To tag people, you have to open your photo in the lightbox viewing mode. To do this, go to your photos tab, select the album, then click on the photo. This should load it up in lightbox view, at which point you'll see the option to "add tag."

An important note: If you tag someone in a G+ pic they will have access to view the entire album in which that photo appears.

6. Enable High-Res Video Chat

High resolution video chat is available in Google+ but you need to take some steps to enable it. Click on the chat's drop-down menu and select settings. Now, check the "Enable high-resolution video" box.

7. Lock Down the Dimensions of Your Profile Pic

Google+ profile photos are 200 pixels by 200 pixels. Rather than chop down a larger pic, or worse still, stretch a smaller one, we suggest resizing the image you want to use as a perfect 200 x 200 pixel square before you upload it. This means your image will appear exactly as you want it to.

8. Display Your +1's

The default setting on Google+ is that your +1'ed pages from around the web will not show up on your profile. However, you can change this to let people see what you've been liking.

Go to your profile tab, click "edit profile," then click on the +1's tab. You will now get the option to "Show this tab on your profile."

9. View Your "Nearby" Stream on a Computer

One of the most popular features of the Plus mobile app is the "Nearby" functionality that lets you view public posts in your vicinity.

Until this makes it to the web version, we have a workaround that lets you view the location-based stream on your computer.

The URL for the mobile version of Google+ is m.google.com/plus, however, entering this in your browser will just redirect you to an info landing page about Google mobile

Entering https://m.google.com/app/plus/, however, will load up the mobile version proper and let you tune into those local posts.

10. Send Invites Without an Email Address

Google+ makes it possible to send invitations to join the service without even needed an email address.

This is ideal for enticing friends and followers over from Facebook and Twitter respectively. The "Send invitations" option on the right of your Google+ screen now generates a link to invite up to 150 people.

BONUS: A Google+ Grammar Lesson

If you're unsure of the correct way to write "+1's" or "+1'd," Google is offering an explanation.

"It s... acceptable to use an apostrophe to add clarity and make sure people read words as intended for example, when your school teacher tells you to mind your p's and q's (as opposed to your ps and qs)."

Are you convinced?

Klout Adds Blogger, Flickr, Instagram, Last.fm & Tumblr

 by Brian Anthony Hernandez

Klout just doubled the number of services it measures to determine your online influence, adding Blogger, Flickr, Instagram, Last.fm and Tumblr to its scoring system.

The San Francisco-based startup, which is celebrating its three-year anniversary today, originally only took Twitteractivity into consideration. Two years later, Klout addedFacebook.

But in June, it began factoring in LinkedIn. And within the past month, it integrated Foursquare and YouTube to its algorithm.

“The networks we launched today were chosen to give the Klout score a more holistic view of influence,” Klout CEO Joe Fernandez told Mashable. “By adding blogging, photos and music to the interactions that we are already measuring we are moving closer to our goal of providing a complete picture of your influence.”

Klout will calculate your influence on these new networks based on the ways you drive actions among your online friends, followers or subscribers.

“On Last.fm the amount of activity a user or listener generates on their profile will almost certainly be a factor,” Fernandez said. “Tumblr is a great example where reblogs and love are clear signals of influence, andInstagram provides likes and comments.”

Klout also plans to add more services such as Google+: “We are eagerly anticipating them launching their API. As soon as they make the data available we will be ready to add it to the Klout score,” he said.

If you log onto Klout, you’ll notice your dashboard now features grayed-out icons for the five newly-integrated services. Click on the icons to have Klout figure in your activity on those services into your overall Klout score.

“Today is actually the three-year anniversary of Klout and we wanted to show off the power of the platform we have built here,” Fernandez said. “The fact that we have launched eight other services — with five today — in the last three months is a testament to the hard work our team has done building a platform that can easily ingest any signal of influence.”

Aside from adding more services in just a few months, Klout also recently unveiled a +K button that allows you to give other users a +K on topics you think they influence. And brands have started offering perks to people with high Klout scores.

Are you excited or bummed that Klout added Blogger, Flickr, Instagram, Last.fm and Tumblr?

Kids & Technology: The Developmental Health Debate

 by Stephanie Buck

How much screen time is appropriate for children? Should young kids be exposed to tech for any extended periods of time? The developmental debate has raged for decades, only to be reignited by the latest waves of iPads and social media.

Dr. Larry Rosen’s experience as a research psychologist and computer educator has allowed him to witness both the positive and negative effects of technology use on young minds. Rosen is a professor of psychology and author ofRewired: Understanding the iGeneration and the Way They Learn. In the end, he sees innovations like social media as developmental pluses for what he calls the “iGeneration.”

“Social networking is really helping them with who they are, their identity in the world,” Rosen says of preteens and teens who engage with their peers via social platforms like Facebook.

According to Rosen, teens are able to test the identity waters, so to speak. For example, they can practice different forms of sexuality via their web presences, and receive feedback from peers. It allows them to “practice life” somewhat innocuously, says Rosen.

Although he is a proponent for technology integration in modern child rearing, Rosen says there is the very real possibility of overdoing it. Many parents believe they’re doing a great job raising their child if he is quietly playing video games in his room all day. That child will lose communication skills, he says. Technology must be “chosen correctly.”

But in a perfect world, technology wouldn’t be chosen at all, according to pediatric occupational therapist Cris Rowan. Author of Virtual Child: The Terrifying Truth About What Technology is Doing to Children, and founder ofZone’in Programs Inc. Rowan’s outlook on child technology use is bleak — and irreversible.

“I used to say to parents, ‘Look, it’s reversible. Just cut your kid [off] and they’ll be OK,’” says Rowan. “But that’s not true. They’re permanently altering the formation of their brain, and it’s not in a good way.” When asked how she foresaw children adapting or evolving if they were to continue at the level of usage seen today, Rowan responded, “Well, I see them dying.”

According to a 2009 Kaiser study, kids aged 8-18 are engaging with digital media an average of 7.5 hours per day. However, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no more than 1-2 hours per day of screen-time. Rowan adds, “There is absolutely nothing in technology that is developmentally healthy. Any time spent in front of a device or with a device is detrimental to child development.”

She cites the research of Dr. Gary Small, Director of the UCLA Memory and Aging Research Center. Small studies how children’s brains today, specifically the frontal lobe, are developing differently than their parents’ due to technology exposure. “As young malleable brains develop shortcuts to access information, these shortcuts represent new neural pathways being laid down,” he writes in his book iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind.

Rowan references a study that indicates technology overuse is not only changing brain chemistry, but also increasing the likelihood of children developing mental illnesses. Human connection, eye contact and dialogue are paramount. Devices are hugely limiting this important exposure, Rowan says. As a result, therapists and clinicians are seeing an increase in attachment disorders, depression, anxiety, bipolar, obsessive compulsive disorders, and ADHD — all of which have been linked to technology overuse. “I’ve been working with kids for 25 years. I’ve never seen this,” she concludes. “This is something that’s epic. And we’re really just witnessing the tip of an iceberg.”

Although the debate rages on, Rosen and Rowan do agree on some things. Both referenced recent data indicating that extended use of social networks like Facebook can result in a decrease in empathy among teens, and thus an increase in narcissism. “[Overuse of Facebook by] teens can potentially lead to a problem psychologically,” says Rosen. It’s what he refers to as an iDisorder, a term he will discuss in his upcoming book about how to avoid tech-related psychiatric symptoms. However, it’s not the platform’s fault, he says. “It’s the way we relate to the platform. It makes it easy to be narcissistic. You can type anything and not see a person’s face crying on the other end.”

Furthermore, neither believes that a complete unplug is necessary — or even safe. In fact, Rowan cites tragic consequences of cutting one’s child off of technology completely — for example, the Ohio teen who killed his mother after his parents took away his Halo 3 video game.

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What Can Parents Do?

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1. Get the TV out of the children’s bedrooms: Kaiser studies estimate that 30% of children age 0-3 and71% of children age 8-18 have a television in their bedroom. Both Rosen and Rowan advise removing brain-drain technology from private spaces. That way, parents can both monitor the type of content kids are absorbing and limit their usage appropriately.

2. Talk about it: Engage in “co-viewing,” a practice Rosen defines as talking about media while both parent and child experience it together. He suggests playing video games with kids, and checking out their social networks (although he’s opposed to parents friending their children on Facebook, in most instances).

3. Evaluate appropriate tech by age: Rosen says that infants respond best to touchscreen technology that will foster their tactile/kinesthetic learning style. School age and young preteens have been shown to develop hand-eye coordination and decision-making skills through video games — ideally, those that have been properly researched, and coupled other imaginative play. For older preteens, mobile phone use fosters communication practice. Finally, despite studies that social networking decreases empathy in teens, Rosen has seen that platforms like Facebook actually aid communication and interaction among teens. “Virtually, you’re doing it behind the screen and you feel safe,” he says. “You have a free, anonymous feeling.”

4. Institute “tech breaks”: The breaks, according to Rosen, can be used at home, in the classroom and everywhere in between. During class or family dinners, have kids put their mobile devices face down. If they succeed in not touching the device for 15 minutes, allow them a 1-2 minute “tech break,” during which they can text, check email or log in to social media.

5. Set aside “sacred time”: Rowan advocates following the “one hour per day, one day per week, one week per year” plan, in which both kids and their parents alike completely unplug. Rowan warns it will be challenging at first: “It’s scary for some families. They don’t know how to talk to each other anymore. They don’t know what to say.”

6. Encourage “healthy” technology: For Rowan, devices like the iPod don’t inhibit social behavior as dramatically as other forms of media, like “brain-draining” video games or television. Rosen doesn’t believe it’s quite as simple anymore to limit certain types of technology — mainly because the lines are now blurred. We’ve integrated television into smartphones, and books into digital readers. He advises narrowing it down by app, and only approving ones based on solid research.

7. Trust your kids: Although parents shouldn’t give kids free reign of their social media presences, allow them to “clean up” their profile pages before you take a peek. Rosen suggests giving kids a 24-hour warning beforehand. From then on, after the initial look, parents have the right to drop by and view their kid’s page spontaneously.

Despite Rowan’s strong warnings against technology abuse by children, she is resigned to the fact that exposure these days in inevitable. On the other hand, Rosen exhibits enthusiasm about the knowledge and technical know-how of today’s youth. He sees a bright future for his friend’s nine-year-old son who, for example, can manipulate gadgets with ease.

When asked whether kids sheltered from technology risk falling behind in society, culture and the business world, Rowan responds simply, “Kids soak it up. Let’s worry about the fact that they may be illiterate by the time they finish high school.”

Anxiety over children’s technology use has existed before the dawn of MySpace, before the rise of the mobile phone, and even before the invention of calculators. Is today’s technology any different or scarier than the rise of technologies past? There’s no doubt that children are growing and developing differently than they did even 15 years ago. But it may still be too early to determine the lasting effects on today’s iGeneration.