This is a list of a few features I would like to see in Google+. I will be suggesting them to Google+ team using the feedback form. Before doing that, I wanted to see what other people are thinking, how they are seeing Google Plus and what features they think will increase the importance of G+. Here is my list of some features, which I believe will make G+ more powerful for me.
Google+ should have a feature to suggest contacts and introduce people to each other. Right now, this can be done by using huddle, or simply tagging people in a status. But it would be awesome if it was clearer and easier.
2. Joining or Subscribing to a Circle
As Darren Rowse suggested, there should be a way for people to add themselves into one or many of the circles, offered to them by another Google Plus user. This way they can subscribe to updates addressed to that specific circle and wouldn’t be bothered by other things. This will also help people with thousands of followers to speak a selected audience.
3. Improved People Search
There should be search options to find people by age, location, interests, etc. Right now, it seems like the search bar on the top allows you to search for people by name. What if I wanted to find people who are in my city, and interested in poetry reading? Advanced search options would allow more people to connect to each other, increasing the overall network size and interactivity on their accounts and Google+.
4. Chat in One tab:
When I have my Google Plus stream opened in one tab and Gmail in other, I have two tabs showing chat in the sidebar. When someone initiates a chat, a window pops up in every G+ and Gmail tab. I think Google plus and Gmail should ask me where I want to chat, on G+, Gmail, both or none.
5. Who are The People in ‘Find and Invite’?
G+ team should explain to us how they display people they think we might want to add to our circles (Update: I later found out that Google+ does explain how it suggests people). It will help us understand, how we can appear in more people’s suggestions. It will also help us understand why we see so many people that have nothing in common with us. Youtube does a similar thing with suggested viewing feature. It describes that it is recommending a particular video because I watched a similar video, and it also tells which similar video I viewed.
6. Integrate Other Networks into Stream using APIs
We all know that the work is in progress to release an API for G+ which will allow developers to integrate apps into Google+. Currently Google is offering a mailing list where Developers can sign up to get notified whenever there are opportunities available for them. Hopefully with this API release, we will be able to see our Facebook, Twitter and other social networks right into our G+ stream.
7. WordPress Integration and Comments
Hopefully, with the API release, it will become possible to integrate Google plus into WordPress. Every comment I post on a Blogger or WordPress blog should appear on my stream with a link back to original post. This means that I will carry my discussions with me to my stream. It would be awesome if we could also receive notifications for new comments on that blog post. People should not only be able to +1 a blog post or page on a website but they should also be able to +1 a comment posted by someone anywhere on the web.
Google needs to provide tools that make a WordPress blog and commenting system get totally integrated. WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg recently talked about how he would like to see G+ integrated into WordPress. WordPress is the world’s most popular CMS used by millions of people. It will provide a great boost to Google+ and in return G+ will provide traffic to the websites running a G+ integrated WordPress website..
8. Allow users to suggest improvements in Find and Invite
Find and Invite shows suggestions there should be a feature to allow users to remove a profile from the suggestions. There are lots of people in there that I don’t want to add. Removing them will improve Google’s algorithms and they would be able to understand more about what I like. Isn’t this the whole purpose of G+?
These were just the few features that came to my mind, I am sure more ideas will keep coming to the minds of all Google Plus users. Many of them have already suggested similar feature requests using the feedback form. The thing that I am curious to know is how we will be using Google Plus in the future. How it will help people make money, build networks, become influential. What are the features that would make Google plus more useful for everyone?
