The best feature of Google+? The search!

Search for a spark in your life and keep it with you...

Welcome to Google+, a world of various passions:  

Search for your interests

Are you an aspiring photographer, enthusiastic kayaker, artist, designer, writer, diver or golfer, looking for inspiring authors or musicians, fascinated by zombies? Looking for business contacts or just pure pleasure or knowledge?

Fret no more, for in Google+ you’ll find lots of people with the same zeal by using the search.

Adding people or pages with the same interests adds to the Google+ experience: No need to be friends with anyone you add.
Following someone on G+ can be like a one way street.

How can I search for a certain topic or individuals with the same tastes?

You can use the filters at the top of your search stream to view just the type of content you want to see.
Search for a word, hashtag or sentence and click enter or the blue button. Then when the search result tab opens:

Choose from among:

- Everything, People and Pages, Communities, Google+ posts, Photos, Hangouts or Events.

You can narrow down the search by using the following:
- From your circles, From you or To you.

After choosing and clicking on the filter, you can furthermore sort your search stream according to relevance / popularity or chronological order:
- Best of or Most recent.

The link to the search looks like this:
https://plus.google.com/s/Gplus%20Helper

You can email or share the search results link.

You can also use Explore feature for the search: Then you will get extra tips for related search results like here, using hashtag #Finland:

Clicking on the Explore instead of search you get a box with more topic related hashtags and the results can be more random / fun than in the actual Google+ search, suggested by the algorithm.

Here're a few good ones to start with: #Plushelp #Googleplustips #Hangouts #Jaanatip and if you wish to get in the weekend mood, check out the #friday stream. For Saturdays there's the #Caturday...  :-)

One can save search links to a Google Drive or a private Google+ community, to Google Bookmarks, Evernote web clipper, Pocket, Delicious...

Circlecount.com is a good place to find new people sorted by sharers:  When you share a circle, copy the URL of the post by clicking on the time stamp and add it to the page.

Search inside a Community

With the Communities came the search possibility inside all of them, but only in the browser, not on the Google+ App.

Before asking a question from the Community members it might be a good idea to search first for the keyword or sentence.

Now the same questions are being posted every day and before we get a Frequently Asked Questions or FAQ -category inside the Communities, answering the same old same old is tiresome.

Here is an example:

People keep asking why their posts to Communities show up on their profile.
Here is a search that would help in getting answers:

"Posts in communities show in my stream"

This has been answered in many ways with a lot of opinions and speculations, too.

Now one can choose if any posts show or not! Google listens.
Read more about it in the Google+ Communities Help page FAQ


You can also click on a certain category in a community; Now when you initiate the search, it will only give you results from that topic / category.  Sharing a category in a post or outside Google+ by copypasting the URL is also possible. (Always test the link before sharing: You may have to remove the u/0/b/ from Any G+ URL before sharing outside, especially from a business page).

An example:  The "Tips for Google+ use" category in +Google+ Helper community looks like this:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/105619967999215909743/stream/a695bfdf-f236-4453-b70a-3186ec30d802

Using bit.ly or goo.gl or some other URL shortener makes it look a lot nicer: http://bit.ly/1axLbeU

Search for names, descriptions or tagged people inside your photos:

Go to your Photos tab:
Search in the Google+ Photos search bar (search for your photos) for the name of the person, without the + in front.  

Or use keywords for the images you want to locate inside your own Photos on Google+.
You can also click on any of the choices offered, for instance Auto Backup brings all those images as result.

How to find your posts and even comments on Google+ search

If you have a vanity URL type into the search:
"Jaana Nyström" -inurl:+Jaana Nyström

- then check the Most recent.

If you don't have a custom URL you can use the G+ ID number too:
"Jaana Nyström" -inurl:+addyour21digit G+ IDhere

Enjoy searching for your passions!