Friday, December 21, 2012

Google Plus - Getting Rid of the Middle Bar Hints

The Google Plus user interface is hiding some information from your eyes because it tries to unclutter the sometimes already overloaded design. The middle bar seen in the next image contains lots of different information for your entertainment. But this is not always what you want.

Getting rid of unwanted stuff

In the above image I have marked some of the information boxes (click to enlarge) that you do not have to show up, at least with the information that is shown in it. 

Community Invitations are the newest kind of hints, that you get from Google. But there is help. Hover with your mouse of the area and you will see a little greyish x beneath the View button. By hitting the little x you can delete the community invitation. This can be done several times and all you invitations should go away. Even the headline will be removed, if there are no more invitations left.

The same can be done with the you might like tips, which are sometimes a little bit silly as I heard from several Google Plus users. Hit the x and see what comes up next.
The hints from the fun & interresting area, which shows up every now and then and is filled from the SUL (suggested user list) can also be annoying. Hit the little x and clear this area, if you don't want to see it.
And last tip before Christmas is to use the drop menu in every post, where you can do several things. If the post was written by yourself, you can easily edit, delete the post. You can disable comments and lock the post from resharing. 

If you are not the author you can at least, mute the post and remove the author from your circles.

Hangouts for meeting frieds and family

And try some Hangouts with your friends and family over the coming days.