Google+ is fresh, and you might already be wondering how to point friends and family to your profile. But unlike Facebook and Twitter, Google doesn't offer vanity URLs, leaving you with a lengthy and hard-to-memorize profile link, like https://plus.google.com/111601729473858041964/.
Get on board with Gplus.to instead--it's a service that shortens your Google+ profile into a simple, memorable link. In this How To, CNET's Brian Tong shows you how.
While you're settling into Google+, you might notice that it's a little lonely without your friends.
Since most of your friends are currently on Facebook (and might not even know about Google+), you'll need to help them make the switch.
Here's how:
Step 1: Log into your Yahoo Mail account. If you don't have one yet, create one. Then, head to the "Contacts" tab in the mail dashboard. Click "Import contacts" and then select the Facebook icon in the next screen. You'll be asked to authorize the connection.
Yahoo … Read more
Locator services like Foursquare are fun and more addictive than they seem at first glance, even though checking in repeatedly can be a pain. Often, users resist new services because the notion of doubling or tripling the number of check-ins makes us want to just stay home--but Checkin King makes life easier for Android-using location loggers. Here's how to get started:
Install and run the Checkin King app, then read and accept the license agreement. (The developers have a short batch of questions for you, but you can skip ahead if you like.) Select the services you … Read more
If you've got your own blog and a Facebook account, you've no doubt thought about merging them at some point. Facebook is understandably nervous about users flooding their friends with endless content streams, so each user is limited to one imported blog, and it's not easy to get to the starting point. Here's how you can do it:
Find the RSS feed for your blog. This is pretty easy; you can usually find it on the page by looking for the orange and white feed icon or the words "Subscribe" or "Follow" … Read more
Gmail is set up to create a new contact for each e-mail you send. However, there are times when this can be more of a hassle than a handy tool. For instance, if you are replying to a lot of Craigslist ads for different pieces of furniture to put in your new apartment, your contacts list will likely get cluttered with nonsense e-mail addresses. Luckily there is an easy option that you can readily toggle off and on to control this feature of Gmail. Here's how:
Step 1: Log in to Gmail.
Step 2: Open the "Mail settings&… Read more
Adopting a new social network like Google+ is taxing enough--re-adding friends, creating "Circles", adjusting privacy settings, etc.--so learning to navigate can be a bit overwhelming.
Luckily, we did the heavy lifting for you. Here are seven Google+ basics you should learn:
1. Bold, italics, and strikethough. Do you miss the funky fonts and formatting you had in MySpace? Neither do we. Google+, however, gifts you with three simple formatting tricks: *bold*, _italics_, and -strikethough-.
2. Tag friends in posts. Get a friend's attention in a post by tagging them. Type "+" or "@&… Read more
Think you've mastered your Gmail? Here are five Gmail tips and tricks that you may not know about:
Tip 1: Select multiple messages Tired of clicking individual messages but don't want to select all of them? Select the first message in the set, hold the shift key, then select the last message of the set.
Tip 2: Bypass the blank message prompt Do you send messages where the subject is the entire message? Then you're familiar with the prompt asking you if you're sure you want to send the message without text in the body. To … Read more
YouTube captions help to make the service accessible to all types of users. With that in mind, if you want to add auto-captioning (based on speech) to every video you load, you can. Or if you want to disable all types of captioning, you can do that too. Follow these quick steps to find out how to get to these settings:
Step 1: Log in to YouTube so you can access your personal settings.
Step 2: Click your username in the top right to open a small menu, and then choose Settings.
Step 3: Choose "Playback Setup" from … Read more
Google Sites now has the ability to automatically optimize sites for viewing on mobile devices (iOS 3.0+ and Android 2.2+). We'll show you how to turn this feature on as well as how to preview the mobile view right from your desktop. Let's get started.
Turn on automatic mobile rendering Step 1: From your Google Sites page, click on the More actions button, then select Manage site.
Step 2: In the left column under Site settings, select General.
Step 3: Check the box next to Automatically adjust site to mobile phones, located near the bottom of … Read more
Google Contacts has plenty of room for storing the addresses and information for all your friends and business associates. Unfortunately, it isn't too choosy about who it adds, leaving you with info you didn't plan on keeping around. So you start deleting contacts and suddenly delete the wrong one from your address book. Luckily, Gmail Contacts has a restore feature nestled into one of its "more actions" menus.
Step 1: Log in to Gmail and click on Contacts in the top left corner.
Step 2: Click on the "More actions..." menu, just above your … Read more
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