Sunday, November 6, 2011

Why I love Google+





By now, I have posted a number of 3-minute videos (TMV), but, today I wanted to pause and tell you why I love Google+.  You see, I won’t be talking to you in this video if it were not for my joining Google+.
What I like best about Google+ is its integration of mail, calendar, documents, photos, and much more. When I get into Google+, I already have access to all of these applications right from the toolbar.That plus when I log into Google+, I can get to everything with the same login. I was already using Gmail with 2-factor authentication (please, do turn on two factor authentication for improved security, just go to your Account Settings page -- if you are on Gmail or Google+, click on your name on the upper right corner and select Account Settings to configure it - - the upshot is that when you log in, after you enter your password, you also must enter a verification code that Google sends to your phone via a text message).
Anyway, I began by sharing some photos with family on Google+ and then discovered that I could post videos on Youtube with the same login. After posting a few vacation videos, I thought why not make some short videos and share some of what I know with others. It was fun getting started with the videos that I am calling "Naba Barkakati's three minute videos" or NBTMV for short :-)
.After posting a few videos, I realized I need to provide some more helpful information, especially names of books or links to websites that I couldn’t possibly provide in the videos themselves. So I got into Blogger and, again, surprise, I could log in with my GMail login. So, I went ahead and created a blog - - nbtmv.blogspot.com and posted each video in a separate blog posting together with the transcript and other helpful information. Of course, I also began sharing these videos on Google+.
Everything was so painless that in no time at all, I had gone from a beginner on Google+ to creating my own 3-minute videos and posting them on my blog, and, of course sharing them on Google+, all of this facilitated by the single login access to mail, calendar, documents, photos, videos, blogs, and much more.
That, in a nutshell, is why I love Google+ and will continue to use it. I hope you agree and will join me on Google+.
(In my video, I didn't mention anything about circles, but I do love to be able to share my posts with selected groups of people based on my circles, but all the productivity applications in one place takes the cake for me :-)
Here's some more helpful information
To keep up with news about Google+ and some interesting posts, check out posts with the Google+ label on the official Google blog.
There are already a bunch of books on Google+, including one Dummies guide that will be published around mid-November 2011. Here are the links to a few books:

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