Quick Tip: What Does "Extended Circles" Mean?

When sharing a post on Google+, you have a few options with whom to share it including "Public," specific circles or people, "Your Circles," and "Extended Circles." If you've never chosen "Extended Circles" because you didn't know exactly what it meant, this Quick Tip is for you.

When viewing a post that was shared to "extended circles," you will see that the post has been tagged with the "extended circles" label. All other private posts such as those shared with "Your Circles" are labeled as "limited."

When you click on the "extended circles" label, a dialog box appears informing you that the post is "visible to everyone in [the original sharer's] circles, plus all the people in their circles." Meaning that it's shared with those up to 2 degrees away from the original sharer.

Extended Circles Explanation

For example, say I have +Lee Jarratt in my circles, and Lee has +Zach Alcorn in his circles. Even if I don't have Zach in my circles, Zach will still be able to see my posts shared with my extended circles because of my connection to Lee and Lee's connection to Zach.

The number of users and which users that will see a post shared to your extended circles is unknown; thus when sharing to extended circles, you should act as if it's public. While sharing with extended circles does give you a little extra privacy than public, but you won't be able to know exactly how much.

One of the main distinctions between a post that is shared publicly and one that is shared to extended circles is how it appears in Google Search. A public post can be found be anyone doing a search through Google. However, a post shared to extended circles will only appear in search results for those that are in your extended circles and logged into their Google account during the search.

Have a Google+ quick tip? Let us know in the comments!