Using Google+ Plus as a Personal Butler, a Couple of Advanced Features

I've been using Google Plus (http://plus.Google.com) since I got an invitation to try it about a month ago. I have to say, while I was using Facebook against my will, almost under duress, I am loving this tool for its maturity of features and organization. It's like having the best of Facebook and the best features of Twitter combined with some twists to make it very customizable.

I found myself posting things, yes things, and replying to others' posts fairly regularly. Also I found a couple of ways to use the tool as my personal butler. These features are not documented features (although I think they will be eventually).

I have created a few circles outside of the normal, Business, Friends, Acquaintances, Family, etc. These might be unconventional ones but they work for me:
- Tasks
- Favorites
- BS Buddies

Tasks - Although I use Astrid as a task manager on my Android phone, I find it very useful to:
- Create a circle
- Add my own email address as the only user
- Post things in Google Plus (G+)
- Just select "Tasks" as the circle to receive the post
Then I can always login to G+ and just go to that circle and show all the tasks I want to keep track of without subjecting others to it.

Favorites - When someone in one of my circles posts something I like, I do the following I click on "Share" and choose my "Favorites" circle and again, this is a list of posts that I want to have for myself and not necessarily share with the rest of the ringmates(TM).

BS Buddies - This has been very useful for me. I send and/or forward interesting tidbits from pages I find, or emails I receive to buddies I think might enjoy it. A lot of people do that. Most of time it includes a file like a video, powerpoint, or PDF etc. I find it much more useful to just make a new post and select only the "BS Buddies" ring, and everyone gets it without the cc: and the large file attachments.

G+ seems to be a daily work in progress from my end as well as from Google's end. While a lot of people came into Social Networking kicking and screaming, I think Google has been able to convince some of us that Social Networking is for our benefit, specially if we use G+.

Source: http://technorati.com/technology/article/using-google-plus-as-a-personal/