Google+ Collections – What They Are and How to Use Them

engadget.com

So if you’ve been on Google+ recently you might have noticed a couple of things. Firstly, it still exists (ZING), secondly, there’s a shiny new tab available with ‘Collections’ daubed across it. What is it? What is it for? How does it work? Well hypothetical, possibly slightly overly inquisitive reader, the Collections tab basically serves to arrange all the pertinent material about a particular topic into one big spread. Now if that sounds familiar to you, it’s probably because you’re aware that Pinterest is a thing, but the key difference is that Google+ is much more forum-based, and covers a much wider range of material.

So how do you make the most of it? Well starting your first collection is a relatively simple process, online you simply select collections in the home menu, hit the ‘Create a Collection’ button, choose a name, select the visibility level and press ‘Create’. When it’s done you can customize it to change the colour theme, headers and other such things. On mobile the process is more or less the same, with a few caveats, but Google have provided a handy gif to explain that version of the process, so I needn’t bother:

Dmitry Shapiro/Google+

Once you have one or several collections set up, it’s a case of finding things to fill them with. All posts will come fitted with an ‘Add to Collection’ option, so all you need to do is search around for the relevant material and put it in. You automatically follow the collections of everyone in your circles, which might be a bit overwhelming if you’re very active on G+, so you might want to go into the tab and edit who you follow. You can move old posts into new collections using the arrow next to the share button and you can share an entire collection by clicking onto it and copy/pasting the URL. It’s worth noting that public posts will only transfer into public collections, so be aware of the visibility settings.

Posting within collections will always pop up on the home screen, so if you happen upon a big crop of posts you want to add, do them all in one lump otherwise your feed will get pretty cluttered. Beyond that, it’s up to you how best to implement it. You could build a catalogue of tourist information about a country you want to visit, keep track of a particular subset of forums or compile a detailed stream of information about an upcoming film or TV show. I’m just spitballing with those though, I’m sure more interesting, creative uses will emerge as the feature gets more time to settle, so for now just have a play and see what sticks. 

Callum Davies

Callum is a film school graduate who is now making a name for himself as a journalist and content writer. His vices include flat whites and 90s hip-hop. Follow him @CallumAtSMF

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