When you log into Google+, the first thing you are going to see is your “All” stream. If you are like me, you are in several Google+ communities and have different circles for different groups of people. Depending on how you have these groups and communities set up, the “All” stream can become cluttered with a lot of posts that you may not be interested in seeing. This can make it confusing to use Google+ to communicate with people that you have decided to circle.
Is the All Stream Dead?
With how cluttered the “All” stream becomes after joining a few communities and adding people to different circles, many people consider the “All” stream to be dead. They feel that the amount of clutter you face is not worth the effort, and checking out individual circles and communities becomes the best way to engage with those that you would like to get to know better. While that is a solid solution, I personally feel that it is worth the time it takes to get your “All” stream under control.Noise Noise Noise!
After I joined a healthy amount of communities on Google+, my main stream became almost unbearable to use. Almost every post was from someone that I didn’t know, sharing a Star Wars or Star Trek meme that I had already seen a hundred times before. It became difficult for me to find the posts from people that I had actually wanted to talk to.My communities were not the only thing creating clutter in my main Google+ stream; people that I added to different circles started to chime in too. I know some people would say, “If you don’t want to hear from the person, don’t add them to your circles.” While I believe this to be true, there are people that you love to hear from who just share way too often and will dominate what you see on Google+. This, combined with your standard community noise, quickly turned my main Google+ stream into a wasteland. But hope was not lost.
Breathe new life into your Google+ “All” stream
My first steps to reduce the amount of unwanted posts in my main stream proved to be unproductive. I went through my circles and reduced the number of people I was following to a much more reasonable amount, and I left some of the communities that I had been a part of on Google+. And my main stream was still cluttered and unmanageable.Noise Canceling Solutions
After some circle and community research, I found two methods that would allow me to reclaim my “All” stream:1. Special Circles: Let’s say you have someone in your circles that you really enjoy following, but they bombard you with way too many posts. If you are following at least 3 people like this, you can create a special circle for them-- let’s call it “Noisy Influencers”. After creating this circle you can actually edit the amount of posts that show up in your “All” stream from this particular circle.
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| Choosing the "Noisy Influencers" circle |
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| Controlling the amount of posts in your main stream |
2. Reducing community noise: Communities work in almost the exact same way as your circles. If you navigate to the community that is causing you the most clutter problems, you will find the same gear icon above the community image on the left hand side. After clicking the gear icon you will see that you get a couple of additional options, but you will still be able to filter your community the same way that you did when managing your noisy circles.
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| Controlling the amount of posts from communities in your stream |
After you go through your circles and communities to filter them to a more appropriate volume, you will find that it is a lot easier to quickly find the posts that you are most interested in by the people that you would like to build strong relationships with online.
What tips do you have for managing the content in your main Google+ stream? Let us know in the comments below!