Section 8: Extensions, Tools, and Apps

Browser Extensions & Tools

Multifunctional

• G+Me by Huy Zing

  Features:
  1. Notification status visible at all times
  2. Collapsible posts & comments
  3. Real-time comment count on collapsed items
  4. Mark posts & comments as read
  5. 2 modes: Expanded & List (which keeps at most one post displayed)
  6. Mouse-over instant preview
  7. Thumbnails & attachment icons in collapsed summaries
  8. Buttons: collapse/expand all, mark all as read
  9. Keyboard shortcuts, including “mute”

• Golden View by Micah Wittman

  Features (optional modules):
  1. User Mute – Mutes all posts by specific users.
  2. Default Circle – Set a circle as default (instead of Stream).
  3. Hide Images – Hide image: original and all shares.
  4. Hide Comments – Hide comments (option hide all by default).
  5. Search With Google – Search Google+ with Google Search

• Plus Minus by Chirag Mehta

  Features:
  1. Filter your Stream by multiple specific circles
  2. Easily mark individual or all posts as read
  3. Offers wide-screen view
  4. Loads more posts automatically as you scroll down

• Google+ Ultimate by Cory Lu Lu

  Features:
  1. Adds stylized theme to Google Plus to make it easier to read.
  2. Adds notifications to the extension icon (beta)
  3. Enables floating top and left navigation sections
  4. Enables optional side-by-side 2-column scrollable Streams (off by default)
  5. Allows option to move Chatbox to the top navigation as a drop down button (on by default)
  6. Thin scrollbars option (on by default)
  7. Resize images and embeds to a smaller thumbnail (for Facebook’s style of image sharing)

• Surplus by Kevin K

  Features:
  1. Post or respond from within a pop-up box
  2. Desktop Notifications
  3. Notification sounds
  4. Switch between multiple Google accounts

• Usability Boost for Google Plus by Florent Fremont

  Features:
  1. Visual separation of post and comments
  2. Post info shows up on mouse roll-over only
  3. Top notification bar stays fixed in place when scrolling
  4. Post displays direct link to “mute”
  5. Ability to star a post to read it later

• Googl Plus Manager by Bruno Leonardo Michels

  Features:
  1. Incorporates common G+ headings into the Google menu bar
  2. Translate any post
  3. Share to multiple social networks
  4. Extensive list of keyboard shortcuts for common functions

• GTools+ by Patrick Perron

  Features:
  1. Unified Google bar - Personalized menu on all Google services and all websites!
  2. Floating Google+ bar always on top when scrolling
  3. Prevent open in new tab or window when you click on a link inside the Google+ bar
  4. Change the color of the notification bubble in the Google+ bar
  5. Add a translation link in the context menu (auto detect the post language)
  6. Add notification for Gmail and Reader in the Google Bar.
  7. Edit the color of any notification bubble.

• Helper for Google+ by Misha Kupriyanov

  Features:
  1. Send a full post to Google Translate
  2. Desktop notifications
  3. Post to Twitter
  4. Link to hashtags
  5. Bookmarks
  6. Search posts & profiles from the address bar

• Google+ Tweaks by Jerome Dane

  Features:
  1. Preview images when you mouse-over them
  2. Favicon badge shows the number of new notices
  3. Make Google+ use your browser’s full width
  4. Force all images in posts to thumbnails
  5. Pin the Google bar and other navigational elements
  6. Yellow “Post muted” notices automatically fade out
  7. View post actions as buttons instead of as a drop-down menu
  8. Hide various elements of Google+ you don’t use
  9. Change background contrast for read vs. unread posts

Circles

• Public Circles Database by Siegfried Hirsch - Find out which publicly shared circles you are included in
• Circle Management (beta) by Mohamed Mansour - Manage your circles in a grid format, search your circles, and more. Useful for people who have a ton of circles!
• Circle+ by Daniel Treadwell - Add G+ profiles on any webpage to your circles in bulk (note: be careful using this on pages that list hundreds of profiles-there is a limit to how many and how fast you can add people)
• Uncircle Inactives+ by Ehsan Gharacheh - Uncircles (removes) select inactive G+ users and people who don’t have any public posts since a predetermined date
• Uncircle Uncirclers+ by Ehsan Gharacheh - Selectively remove people from your circles who haven’t circled you back
• G+ Game Companion by Nicolas Pomepuy - Lets you choose people from your circles and automatically selects them in the G+ contact picker list view in bulk (not one by one) for easier and quicker identification (also has redesigned Game Stream and Notification pages)
• Change Circle Images for Google+ by K Saga - Set a background image for your circles in the circle management page
• (See also: Golden View Chrome extension - Allows you to select a single circle as the default Stream)
• (See also: Plus Minus Chrome extension - Allows you to filter the Stream based on multiple circles)

Hangouts

• (See also: Section 5 on Hangout Resources)
• Quick Hangouts by Josh Estelle - Places a static Hangout notification in the right-hand column instead of within the moving Stream.
• Hangout Auto Try Again by Mohamed Mansour - Automatic retry to get into a jam-packed Hangout.
• My Hangouts for Google Plus by Mohamed Mansour - Quickly view all active Hangouts and join them from an actionable browser button.
• Google+ Hangout Check by Dan Ives - Show a list of active Hangouts from people in your circles and join them from a pop-up browser-button menu
• Hangout Pad for Google+ (alpha) by Mohamed Mansour - Collaborate writing software programming code over a Hangout.
• LiveOn+ by Tony Rouse - Access live and upcoming Hangouts through a browser button.
• Hangout Canopy by Robert Pitt - Discover public hangouts throughout the G+ network and monitor profiles to be notified when a specific person hangs out.
• Conceptboard for Google+ Hangouts - Uses conceptboard.com. Your shared board is available even after the Hangout closes. In addition to drawing tools, you can import files (images, PDF, Microsoft Office documents), write notes & create tasks, and take screenshots with an integrated tool.

Bookmarking

• Circle Star by Guy Wyant - Star posts in G+ for later reference.
• Pin It by Garth Humphreys - Pin your favorite post to the sidebar in G+.
• Fav+ by Protocol-X - Add a bookmark section to the G+ navigation menu.
• Official Google +1 Button - Adds a +1 button to any site around the web.
• See also: How to Add a G+ Post to Your +1 Tab by Johnathan Chung.
• Star Bookmarks for Google+ by YungSang Nan - Star posts to automatically save them to Google Bookmarks
• (See also: Helper for Google+)

Layout & Appearance

• Auto-Colorizer for Google+ - Transforms your profile color scheme based on your profile photo.
• Styling for Google Plus - Tweak various components and elements of the user interface.
• Google+ Refined for Google - Customize multiple aspects of the user interface.
• GCView for Chrome - Change the style of Google+: image size; font size & background color of the Stream or comments section; show or hide menu items; pop-up images & pop-up YouTube videos.
• Layouts for Google Plus - Replace the white space on G+ with a background image (upload your own or get one from Google Plus Themes).
• Midnight Theme for Google+ - Use the simple dark theme or upload your own background image.
• Google Plus Colors - Change the color & background of your Google toolbar with 11 predefined themes.
• Tweetify for Google Plus by Peteris Erins - Reduce information overload by compressing posts in the Stream to less than 140 visible characters.
• UserStyles.org G+ Themes - Google Document list started by Mana Ionescu.
• Userstyle themes require the Stylish extension for Firefox or Chrome.
• +Everything by Mathieu Simard - Add the black Google+ menu bar to every web page.
• Ziplbar Plus by Matt Senter - Adds a Google+ menu bar to every web page.
• G+ Stats - Change layout to view users’ most popular posts and photos on their profile pages.
• Google+ Vintage Edition - Contemporary websites recreated with technology from 1997
• Change Circle Images for Google+ by K Saga - Set a background image for your circles in the circle management page

Photos

• +PhotoZoom by Sebastian Mauer - Automatically display full-size views of images.
• Hover Zoom by Romain Vallet - Enlarge thumbnails when mouse is hovered over the image. Works on many sites, not just Google.
• View original size image for Picasa - Use a right-click mouse menu to view original size images from Google+ (Picasa Web Albums)
• Gif Stopper by Terry Moore - Stop animated gif images in your Stream by using the ESC key
• Trey Ratcliff Notifier by Mohamed Mansour - Full view of the most recent photos posted to Trey’s G+ Stream
• (See also: Section 4 on Transferring Photos to Google+)

Sharing, Commenting, & Notifications

• Replies and More for G+ by Matt Mastracci - Adds ‘reply to’ author button to G+ comments; number of new messages shown in favicon; m “mute” shortcut; menu with additional sharing options.
• Share Widget for Google Plus by Rudy Reeves - Opens a pop-up box from a browser button to share websites to G+.
• Simple Google+ Bookmarklet by AJ Batac - Share any webpage directly to Google+ using a browser bookmarklet
• AutoSave for Google+ - Automatically save your text input fields and restore them if accidentally lost
• Official Google+ Notifications - Access G+ notifications on any webpage through a browser button

Stream

• G+ Stream Pause by Robert Pitt temporarily stops your stream so you can read and reply to posts without getting distracting screen movements.
• Stream Filter for Google Plus by Mohamed Mansour - Filter in or out specific posts by custom keywords
• Stream+ for Google+ by Mohamed Mansour - Categorizes all of your public posts from your Stream
• Nonplus by Adam Bliss - Auto-mute posts in the Stream based on hashtags
• DownloadSupport for Google+ - Download videos and photos from your G+ Stream
• Google+ Stream Book by Sandesh Kumar - Flip through pages of a virtual book of your Stream
• Book My Plus by Mohammad Eshbeata - Create a virtual book from your G+ posts
• Google+ Twitter by Bruno Barbieri - Integrate your Twitter feed into your G+ Stream
• Google+ Facebook by Crossrider - Integrate your Facebook feed into your G+ Stream
• Mute Plus - Mute specific users in your primary default G+ Stream. Doesn’t affect users when viewed in each individual circle’s streams
• (See also: Google+ Ultimate Chrome extension for side-by-side 2-column scrollable Streams)
• Full Article+ by Ehsan Gharacheh - View full articles & links from your Stream in a pop-up without leaving Google+
• What’s Hot+ by Ehsan Gharacheh - View popular posts from your Stream and in your individual circles
• Google+ Word Cloud - Generates a word cloud of most commonly used words in your Google+ posts

Translation

• Official Google Translate for Google+ announced by Josh Estelle
• (See also: Google Plus Manager, Helper for Google+, and GTools+)

Keyboard Shortcuts

• G+ Extended by barklund adds a handful of extra keyboard shortcuts for common G+ actions

Google Reader

• Reader to Plus - Send items in Google Reader to your G+ Stream.
• RSS Share for Google Plus and Google Reader by Sebastián Ventura - Adds a Google Reader section as a pop-out slider menu below the YouTube slider
• How to Share Google Reader Stories to Google+ by ReadWriteWeb

GMail

• GMail for Google Plus - Integrates Gmail into multiple Google products including Google Plus.
• Send from Gmail by Google - Use a browser button to easily email a webpage, including Google+ posts.

Search

Google+ now supports search capability as of 9/20/11. Nonetheless, some of these resources remain useful.

• Topsy - Realtime search for the social web (Google+ Search Beta)
• Stuff in Plus by Abdullah Ibeid - G+ post and images search engine.
• Google with Social Stats - Returns results from a Google Search based on number of +1s, Likes, and Tweets
• G+ Search by posts, profiles, Buzz, or Google Reader by Rich Knight.
• Similar website G+ Search Engine and their corresponding Chrome extension
• Another similar Chrome Search Extension for Google Plus.
• GPlusRecruiter - Search job candidates’ Google+ and LinkedIn profiles.
• PostsOnPlus - Discover great conversations on Google+.
• Google Plus Search - Firefox browser add-on to search G+ without signing in.
• Enlightenment for Google Plus by Julien Alric - Adds search bar for G+, Google, and Twitter.
• (See also: Golden View and Helper for Google+ Chrome extensions)

Custom Profile URL Shorteners

• http://profiles.google.com/username (Official; only available to users who previously had a Google Profile)
• Plain Nickname Services:
• gplus.to, gplus.am, gplus.cm, gplus.is, plus.ly, topl.us, ongpl.us, goplus.us, dirpl.us
• gplusnick.com, gplusid.com, glpl.us, togplus.com, myplus.co
• goog.la (French), mygpl.us and circule.me (Spanish)
• Basic Nickname Services with Added Functionality:
• plusya.com - Custom URL with profile traffic analysis and trends.
• sgplus.me - Custom URL with extension to integrate Facebook and Twitter into G+.
• zipl.us - Custom URL with RSS feed, user stats, and Chrome extension to display the black Google+ toolbar on every webpage.
• plusg.info - Custom URL with accompanying directory, top people lists, and search.
• myplus.name (+.name) - No character limit. Register up to 5 different aliases.
• mygplus.name - A whole list of custom names to choose from grouped according to profession.
• plusist.com - Custom URL and ability to post to Facebook and Twitter from G+.
• Advanced Nickname Setup:
• (Advanced tip) How to setup a custom redirect from your own domain to your G+ profile in one .htaccess line by Daniel Sandler. Another explanation by Rich Knight.

Cross-Posting Between Platforms

• Extended Share for Google Plus by Mohamed Mansour - Share to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Identi.ca, Posterous, Reddit, Ping.fm, Hyves, and more!
• Share+ Social Buttons for Google Plus - Share a post with multiple other social platforms.
• Publish Sync - Post between Google+, FB, Twitter, and other networks.
• PlusBounce by Tim Pope - Choose which updates in G+ are automatically sent to Twitter, FB, and LinkedIn
• Syyncc by Emlyn O’Regan - Link and sync Google+ (including comments) to FB, Google Buzz, and WordPress
• Gooce+ - Read and post to Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Also has Google+ search function.
• G++ - Like, comment, & post to FB and tweet & re-tweet to Twitter from G+. Also get FB & Twitter feeds in G+.
• Sync Google+ by Rob McGee - Share to Twitter, Identi.ca, and Facebook.
• Plusist.com - Share your Google+ posts to Facebook and Twitter automatically.
• Manage Flitter - Make Google+ posts automatically appear on Twitter.
• Plusto.net - Reads your public Google+ feed and automatically sends specially tagged posts to Twitter.
• StartGooglePlus - Integrate Twitter and Facebook information within your Google+ Stream.
• G+ Twitter for Google Plus - Tweet inside Google+ with auto-shortening link support, track keywords and tags, view conversations, and more.
• Google+ Twitter by Bruno Barbieri - Integrate your Twitter feed into your G+ Stream.
• Google+ Facebook by Crossrider - Integrate your Facebook feed into your G+ Stream.
• GPlusLabs by Vladislav Tserman - Post from Google+ to Twitter, FB, LinkedIn, and more.
• Share a G+ Post to Evernote tip shared by Brian Caldwell.
• Google+Blog by Daniel Treadwell - Automatically publish your Google+ posts to WordPress
• GPlus to Instapaper - Save a G+ post to read later in Instapaper

Turn G+ Posts into RSS Feeds

• (See also: Helper for Google+, Reader to Plus, and RSS Share for Google Plus Chrome extensions)
• Plu.sr by Andy De Ruyter- Unofficial Google Plus Mobile Page and RSS Feed
• zipl.us by Matt Senter - Custom URL service with RSS feed, user stats, and G+ toolbar extension
• PlusFeed2 optimized by Siegfried Hirsch - Unofficial Google+ User Feed. Create RSS feeds of users’ public posts (original Plus Feed no longer maintained by Russell Beattie)
• GPlusFeed by Ted Kulp - Another version of Plus Feed ported
• PlusOneFeed modified & distributed by The Customize Windows
• Pluss by Amber Yust - Feed proxy for Google+
• Google+ to RSS Feed by Jeff Turner
• plus2atom by Michele Azzolari - Turn Your Google+ User Public Stream into an Atom Feed

Transfer From Facebook

• Exodus to Google+ by Albert Nichols and Jack Carter
• Facebook Friend Exporter by Mohamed Mansour
• (See also: Section 4 on Transferring Photos to Google+)

Profile Stats & Analytics

Games

• Goodbye G+ Games by Huy Zing - Removes the games menu button.
• G+ Game Companion by Nicolas Pomepuy - Lets you choose people from your circles and automatically selects them in the G+ contact picker list view in bulk (not one by one) for easier and quicker identification. Has redesigned Game Stream and Notification pages.

Blog Widgets

Desktop Gadgets & Apps

Miscellaneous

Mobile Apps

• Official Google+ Apple iPhone app
• Google Plus Photo Importer for iPhone - Import photos from FB, Instagram, Flickr, and Photobucket
• Official Google+ app for Android Phones
• Search Google+ app for Android - Search for posts & profiles and view G+ trends.
• Install Google+ App on iPad and iPod Touch by Uzair Ghani
• Google Plus Mobile Launcher for Blackberry