The Most Important Setting

Not surprisingly, the most important option on the Google+ settings page is the first one: “Who can send you notifications?” This setting is the only way you can control which notifications appear in your Google toolbar and Notifications stream, whereas you can use the settings described starting on The Other Notification Settings to fine-tune the notifications you get via email and cellphone.

You might not think this setting is all that vital if you only use Google+ to share news with a small group of friends, family members, and acquaintances. They’re the only people who can see your posts, so who else could you be notified about?

As you learned Chapter 2, anyone can add you to one of their circles, even if you haven’t added them to a circle of yours. And anyone you haven’t blocked (Blocking, Muting, and Reporting Posts) can mention you in a post, share a post specifically with you, or tag you in a photo. So unless you adjust this setting, you might get notifications about that annoying guy you only knew in seventh grade when he writes posts about you, uploads embarrassing pictures from your adolescence, and so on. Then again, you might like knowing when people are talking about you and pointing you out in pictures.

To adjust this setting, click the box to the right of “Who can send you notifications?” In the list that appears choose the minimum amount of acquaintance you want to have with the people whose actions result in you receiving a Google+ notification. For example, if you want to know about every single mention of you on the site, choose Anyone.

If you’re using Google+ to interact with particular circles and you rarely (if ever) post items using the Public or Extended Circles options (Choosing Who Sees Your Posts), it’s probably okay to leave this setting as it is (it’s automatically set to “Extended circles”; flip to Writing a post while viewing your main stream for a reminder of what that means). If you post things publicly or seem to attract a lot of unknown commenters and sharers who bother you, scale back to Your Circles instead.

If you’d like, you can pick out certain circles and people who can trigger notifications by choosing Custom. In the box that appears, select the circles and people you want using the same techniques you use to select who sees your posts (Choosing Who Sees Your Posts). When you’re done, click Save.