Overview of Google+ Collections

Google launched Google+ Collections in May 2015. It’s a new feature in Google’s social network to help organize posts.

With Collections, users can group their posts, including pictures and videos, based on topic. Doing so, will help you keep your posts organized and help your users find relevant posts more efficiently.

Also, given that each Collection has a separate URL, users can follow a particular Collection if they wish. By default, anyone following you on Google+ will automatically be following all your Collections.

Google+ launched in June 2011 and hasn’t garnered as much popularity like Facebook has. Based on stats that I’ve seen online, currently Facebook is estimated as having over a billion users. Comparatively, Google+ has approximately 300 million users.

I was among the first to test out Google+ when it first launched by invite-only. Ever since, I’ve been using Google+ fairly actively and I would say, much more than I use Facebook. Anyway, I’m sure this doesn’t apply to everyone. However, if you are a business owner, including being self-employed, you would definitely benefit from using Google Plus.

Well, getting back to Google+ Collections, given that they are fairly new, I’m sure they will evolve, so we can expect changes as we go along. But for now, you can create Collections around topical posts; you can customize them with a relevant name and personalized cover photo, as well as apply different colors to them. The recommended size for the cover photo is 1080x608 pixels. The maximum photo size is 2120x1192. And the picture should not be smaller than 480x270.

You can also control who sees your Collections. That is, you set the privacy settings to private or public. However, note that at this point, you cannot edit the “private/public” settings of your Collections once you create them. Though, if you wish, you can delete a particular Collection.

Once you create a Collection, you can add previously shared Google+ posts to the Collection. Also, you can share Collections with those following you, just like you would a regular Google+ post. Personally, I like this new feature that Google has introduced because I like to keep things organized.

Google+ Collections is available on Android for smartphone users. You will have to update your Google+ app to be able to access this new feature. Apple iOS users will have to wait to use Collections.

I’ve created several video tutorials on Google+ Collections, so feel free to check them out. You will find videos on: what are Google+ Collections; how to create, edit and customize Collections, and others.

Learn to use Google+ Collections, I think you will find them useful. Google also has a Featured Collections page, you never know when your Collections will get featured and give you that little bit of extra exposure.

Facebook Home, HTC First Smartphone, & Privacy Concerns

Facebook Home was unveiled, by Mark Zuckerberg, on April 4, 2013. It is basically a user interface (UI) designed for Android smartphones to replace home screens on Android mobile devices.

As per Mark Zukerberg, Facebook Home “is designed around people, rather than apps”. With Facebook Home activated on your smartphone, your home screen becomes a cover feed displaying updates from your Facebook Newsfeed. It acts like an automatic slideshow with users being able to interact with their updates.

With FB Home, you can now get notifications, not only from FB, but others apps like Gmail and other social networks. And finally, Chat Heads is a messaging system, via Facebook, which allows users to interact with friends via SMS messages. Though FB Home is your main screen, you can get to your other apps, however, it’s one extra step.

Facebook Home comes pre-loaded on HTC First, a phone specifically designed to provide an optimal user experience with Home. Though, the Facebook Home App is available for download on Android devices via Google Play. The HTC First is a mid-level smartphone with a 4.3-inch multi-touch capacitive display, equipped with a 1.4 GHz dual-core processor, 1 GB RAM, and weighs 124 grams. It has a 5 MP rear camera and a 1.6 MP front-facing camera. The battery life of the HTC First smartphone is approximately 14 hours. The HTC First is not designed to compete with premium smartphones like the Apple iPhone 5 or Samsung Galaxy S4, rather it's meant to be an affordable mobile phone, which is exclusively available through AT&T.

Check the video below to see the HTC smartphone specs and Facebook Home in action on the HTC First:

When talking about Facebook, one has to raise the question regarding privacy concerns. In the past, Facebook has faced numerous complaints with regards to user’s privacy. For users who use Facebook Home as their main screen, given that Facebook Home will constantly be on, it raises the concern that advertisers will be able to track FB user’s every actions as they interact.

Many Android apps today get access to a lot of the data on the user’s smartphones, however, it doesn’t stop Facebook from data-mining FB user’s information so advertisers and Facebook can benefit from it. I know many users, especially those who are addicted to Facebook, will enjoy this new user interface. I don’t know about you, but I’m not too comfortable letting Facebook Home take over my smartphone and my life.

So I will not be using this app. In response to user’s privacy concerns, Facebook responded “doesn’t change anything related to your privacy settings on Facebook, and your privacy controls work the same with Home as they do everywhere else on Facebook”. Here is the link to the Facebook’s Official Response to Privacy Concerns.