Google+ Notes/Bookmarking Hacks, Tricks

Google+ Notes/Bookmarking "Hack" version 2.0 
And a new "hack" to save Voice Memos from mobile phone


By Arun Shroff: 
Ah, just discovered a cool Google+ hack: Use Google+ as your own private bookmarking service and also to jot down quick ideas and notes. How? :
Note: "Hack" here is used in its good sense; don't worry this hack won't break anything; and no coding is involved! Plus there are some additional tips, and a way to save voice memos in your Google+ Circles while on the go from your mobile phone. 


How To use Google+ Circles to make your own private bookmarking:
1. Go to circles, "Drop here to create a new circle". Click on "Create Circle".
2. Name your circle - say My Notes/My Scrapbook - whatever you wish. (just name it something that you will know is private).
 3. Click on "Create Empty circle".
There is no need to add yourself or anyone else to this circle - as this trick works even with empty circles. Since the circle is empty it will be visible only to you and is therefore will always stay private.

4. Next time you want to save somethhing for later - a note, an idea, a website link, a photo , a youtube video - just post it in Google+ , make sure you select the empty circle you just created and then click on "Share".

Note: Remember that Google+ remembers the last circle you used for sharing, and uses that as a default for your next share. So if it is something you want to keep private, just make sure you select the Private Circle before hitting the share button.

This Circle and everything you save to it will now be just a click away on the left side under your Stream.

Here are some more tips and ways to use this:
 a.  Steve bryson suggested that if you are an Evernote user, you can add your Evernote email address to the circle, and it will show up in your default Evernote folder.

b. Some users have suggested that this can be used as a draft or staging area that can be used to later reshare this to your friends/public stream.

c. Create different empty circles for different topics.

d. You can also use it to save any post in your stream
(that you find interesting), by sharing to your private circle. Or you can click on the Link to post (in upper right corner of the post), and save the hyperlink.
In the first case, the user will see a share by you (but will not be able to view it in your stream since it is private). In the second case, the user will not see it as a share.

e. You can add more notes to an existing saved post, by adding them as comments to the original item.

f. You can always reshare anything to your other Circles by clicking on Share and selecting a non-private circle. For example, when you are ready to publish a draft just edit it and then reshare it.

And Here is a new hack :How to Save Voice Memos on the go.*

This requires you to have an Android phone, Google+ Android App installed, and Instant Upload enabled.

I discovered this today when playing around with the Google+ App on my Android phone while I was out. Here is how it works:

1. Make sure you have Instant Upload enabled in Google+

2. Open the Camcorder app on your Android phone. Click on Record, speak into the phone and say whatever it is you want to remember later. Click stop when done. Of course, you can also use it to take a photo or video you want to save for later. Lots of other uses for this : For example to save an item you saw while shopping that you want to buy later - just snap a picture of it.

3. When you get back to your computer login to Google+ and select Share on the toobar. In the drop down select the Icon with a "1" ("Share recent photos from your
phone").
Note: This does not yet work from the mobile Google+ App - as that only allows you to post and share photos and not videos.

4. You will see the voice memo as a video (or the photo you took of the item) in the Choose photos from phone screen which will come up Select it and then click to make sure you have selected your Private Notes Circle and then click on Share.

The voice memo / photo will now show up in your private My Notes stream.
Hope you found these tips useful. If you do share it, and add any of your own tips or add-ons as a comment here. Thanks for reading this. 

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