Randy writes: I’d like my Google profile, Picasa, etc., to not show up on search engines. What do I do?

Google may be all about search, but it is possible to hide your Google+ profile from the prying eyes of search engines.

As Google points out, though, anyone on the web can still access your Google profile if they have its URL, while any sites or blogs linking to your Google profile may well pop up in search results.

That said, here’s what you do:

1. Sign in to your Google account, then click here to access your Google+ profile page.
2. Now, see the blue “Edit Profile” button to the right of your name? Go ahead and click it.
3. You’ll land on an editable version of your Google+ profile; from here, you can change the privacy settings of any section on your profile. For now, though, scroll to the very bottom of the page, and click the setting that reads “Profile discovery.”
4. Last step: Uncheck the box labelled “Help others discover my profile in search results,” then click the Save button.

From now on, Google will block search engines (including Google itself) from indexing your Google+ profile page—meaning it won’t show up in search results.

OK, but what about your Picasa Web albums? You can go ahead and hide all your photos from public view; just visit your Picasa account, click on your albums, and make sure “Visibility” is set to either “Limited” (meaning only those with the URL of your albums can see them) or “Only you.”

Looking for more Google+ tips? Click here!

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Looking to boost your circle—or circles—of Google+ friends? Well, Google just made it a lot easier to invite your buddies to the search giant’s new social network.

A new feature on the Google+ invitation system lets you email, post, tweet, or otherwise share a single link to recruit more Google+ contacts, as TechCrunch reports. Until now, Google+ users had to send out invitations one at a time.

Just share your customized Google+ invitation link to boost your circles of Google+ pals.

If you’re already a Google+ member, just go to your Google+ “stream” and click the “Invite Friends” button in the right-hand column of the page. A pop-up window with your customized invitation link will appear; just copy the link, share it, and watch your Google+ friends circles start to grow.

The catch? The link is only good for 150 invitations.

And in the spirit of sharing … here’s my Google+ invitation link:

https://plus.google.com/_/notifications/ngemlink?path=%2F%3Fgpinv%3DJ6Weukaxyyk%3AffSoRqu33mo

For more tips, tricks, and a beginner’s guide to Google+, visit here’s the thing’s Google+ information center.

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Based on the terrific response to my Google+ feature yesterday, it seems that many of you are eager to give Google’s new social network a spin.

But while Google is accepting more and more people into its Google+ “field trial,” you’ll still need an invitation to get in.

That’s where I come in. Want an invite? If so, drop me a line and I’ll send you one—it’s that simple.

Also, if you have any questions about Google+, let me know; I’ll answer the top questions in an upcoming blog post.

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Just select the people you want to add, then drag them into the Google+ "circle" of your choice.

Probably the biggest question Google needed to answer about Google+, its ambitious new social network, isn’t “how” or “what,” but “why?”

Why would anyone want to add another social network to their lives when we’re already wasting hours a day on Facebook and (to a lesser extent) Twitter?

Well, the answer isn’t all that obvious until you’ve used Google+ for a bit—and indeed, the initial list of features (including virtual “hangouts” where you can video chat with entire groups of friends, instant photo and video uploads from your phone, and feeds of “highly contagious” topics to comment on) wasn’t initially all that awe-inspiring (or at least, it wasn’t to me).

As it turns out, though, the subtle yet powerful appeal of Google+ lies in how you add fellow Google+ members to your distinct social “circles.”

Instead of forcing you to deliberate whether to accept that random Facebook friend request from someone you met exactly once, Google+ lets you add near-strangers to your social network—but you can also banish them to a far-flung Google+ circle with little access to your personal updates or information.

So far, giving the barely two-week-old Google+ a test-drive hasn’t been all that easy. Entry into Google+ is by invitation only, and until just a few days ago, Google+ invites were scarce—and hot—commodities. The good news is that Google seems to have loosened its grip on Google+ invites, making them far easier to snag. (If you don’t have one yet, drop me a line and I’ll send you one.)

Still, all the chatter about Google+ “circles” feature is just academic until more people join Google+. Some unofficial estimates claim that about four million souls are signed up—not bad for just a week, but a drop in the bucket compared to Facebook’s mammoth, 750-million-member network.

Once you do manage to sign up (you’ll need a Google or Gmail account to get started), Google+ will present you with a wall of thumbnailed tiles, each representing a member. Beneath the tiles, you’ll see a row of four blue circles, marked “Friends, “Family,” “Acquaintances,” “Following,” and a fifth labeled “Drop here to create a new circle.”

Google+ lets you share—or not—specific personal details with only the circles you choose.

Here’s where the fun begins. As opposed to Facebook, where adding a casual acquaintance puts them in the same bucket as your closest family and friends, Google+ immediately asks you to put (or rather, drag with your mouse) a new Google+ contact into one of your social “circles.”

Why is this such an important point? Because with Google+, there’s no agonizing about whether that person who’s trying to add you to their network is close enough to add to your friends list.

For example: That person you just met at a business conference, or at the store—you know, someone you might normally think twice about adding on Facebook? In Google+, you can just drag them into your “Acquaintances” circle rather than, say, your “Best friends forever” circle.

Also, these Google+ social “circles” aren’t just circles in name. Any updates you write, photos you post, or any other content you share with a circle stays within that circle, unless you specify otherwise. You can also specify which bits of personal trivia in your Google+ profile (including your resume, interests, relationship status, and phone number) get shared with a specific group—and which don’t.

Now, Facebook also allows you to create its own version of friend circles—although on Facebook, they’re called Groups, and when you add a friend to a group (like, say, “People I don’t know very well”), they’ll know about it.

In Google+, on the other hand, your contacts won’t know which of your circles you’ve added them to; instead, they only know that you’ve added them in one way or another, thus eliminating the possibility of hurt feelings by adding them to your “Can’t remember where I met them” circle.

Another difference between Google+ “circles” and Facebook Groups is that on Facebook, Groups are intended to act more like clubs—that is, you won’t see anything posted to a Facebook Group wall that wasn’t specifically intended for that particular group. If your Facebook friends don’t take to the Group you created for them, you’ll hear nothing from the Group but crickets.

Click a link to see updates only from a particular Google+ circle. (The updates pictured here are all public, by the way.)

With Google+, though, clicking on a particular circle filters out status updates in your Google+ news feed from anyone that isn’t a member of your circle. Click on your “Family” circle, for example, and you’ll only see updates from mom and dad, or your brothers and sisters. Click on your “Office mates” circle, and you’ll only see posts from folks in the office—even if they’re not even aware that you’ve relegated them all to their own circle in your Google+ network.

To be fair, Facebook also lets you filter your news feed using Friends Lists, which you may have to hunt around to find. Try clicking the “Friends” link below your profile picture, then click the “Manage Friend List” button at the top of the page; you’ll then see you lists (if you have any) in the left-hand column. Once you have some lists set up, return to your main profile, click the link next to “Top News” above your news feed (the link probably reads “Most Recent”), then scroll to the bottom of the drop-down menu and select a friend list by which to filter.

But Facebook’s friends lists are really only for filtering your news feed—there’s no way to specify that, say, you don’t want your phone number shared with people on your “Old pals from high school” friend list. Correction: Actually, you can share specific updates and personal information with individual friend lists in Facebook. It’s not nearly as seamless a process as in Google+; still, apologies for the oversight.

In other words, Google+’s social circles are more than just window dressing. They’re powerful sharing features that can (potentially, at least) ease your anxiety about whether to accept, reject, or ignore those incoming friend requests.

So, what do you think: Does the world need another social network? Like the idea of choosing “circles” for your friends? Need a Google+ invite? Let me know!

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Relax. I’ve got answers to those questions and more right here, along with what you need to do to either keep your Google Profile online, or simply delete it forever.

What are Google Profiles?
Similar to your profile page on Facebook, Google Profiles were originally intended as a way of managing how you and your personal information appear in Google search results. You can upload a profile picture, add a job title and a location, and even add links to social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Does everyone with a Google or Gmail account have a Google Profile page?
Not necessarily. In most cases, Google Profiles must be created manually, although Google notes that you “may” have a Google Profile if you’ve ever written a review on Google Maps, posted an update on Google Buzz (Google’s previous stab at launching a social network), shared an article in Google Reader, or added a book to your Google Books library.

How do I find out if I have a Google Profile?
Easy. Just sign in to your Google or Gmail account, then visit the Google Profiles site (profiles.google.com); if you have a Google Profile, it’ll pop up. (Here’s my Google Profile, if you’re interested.)

OK, so what’s Google’s plan with Profiles?
Well, remember Google+, the new social network that Google unveiled last week? As part of its Google+ push, Google wants all Google Profiles—which will soon become Google+ profiles, by the way—to be public. Instead of just switching any and all private Google Profiles to public, though, Google says it will delete all hidden profiles on July 31, about three-and-a-half weeks from now.

What if I don’t want my Google Profile deleted?
Just visit your Google Profile page, click the blue “Edit Profile” button, and make sure that at least your full name and gender are listed. Also, click the “Search visibility” setting near the bottom of the page and select “visible in search.”

Hmm, I don’t want the world seeing where I live, what I do, or where I went to school.
Not a problem. Click that “Edit Profile” button again, then click on the info that you’d rather keep to yourself and delete it from your profile.

I don’t want a Google Profile at all, and I’d rather just delete the whole thing now. What should I do?
Visit your Google Profile page, click “Edit Profile,” and click the “Delete profile and disable Google Buzz completely” link at the bottom of the page.

Will deleting my Google Profile also close my Google and/or Gmail account?
Nope, your Gmail and Google ID will live on even if you zap your Google Profile.

Wait, I still have more questions about Google Profiles!
No problem—just post your questions below, or send me an email.

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With Circles, you can share updates, photos, and other content with a small group of Google+ pals. Remind you of anything?

Google made a big splash Tuesday with its unveiling of Google+, a new (and long-rumored) social network intended to help small groups of friends share and congregate online. Sounds a little like Facebook, right? That’s surely the idea.

Google+ isn’t quite ready for prime time yet; for now, it’s in a limited, invitation-only “field trial.” That said, Google posted an elaborate, interactive demo of the new service here, along with a brief highlight reel (which I’ve embedded after the jump).

How will Google+ work? Well, there are five main components of the still-percolating network, including…

• Circles: A small group of friends that you create based on … say, your common interests, your familial relationships, your share past, you name it. For example, you could have a Google+ Circle of co-workers, your brothers and sisters, your old college buddies, or your book club. Once you’ve set up a Circle, you can quickly connect and share updates, photos, and other content with just a few clicks.
• Huddle: A group messaging “experience” for mobile chatting with an entire group of Google+ pals at once.
• Hangouts: A virtual, video chat-powered place where available Google+ users with free time on their hands can join for a little “unscheduled” time.
• Instant upload: A nifty-sounding feature that automatically uploads photos and videos from your Google+-enabled phone (a Google+ app for Android is already available, while an iPhone version is on the way) to a private folder in your Google account; from there, you can quickly share video clips and snapshots with whomever you wish.
• Sparks: A feed of “highly contagious” content based on Google search results, intended to—you guessed it—spark online conversation with your various Circles of pals.

So, that’s the five-minute version of Google+, and here’s the question everyone’s asking about it: Will Google+ be a Facebook-killer? Or is it destined to be another Google Buzz, Google’s weak stab at social networking from last year?

Google+'s "Huddle" feature lets you chat with a small cluster of friends all at once.

I haven’t tried Google+ myself yet (where’s my invite, Larry Page?), but many of the features in Google+ already sound awfully familiar.

Google+ Circles, for examples, appears to work more or less the same as Facebook Groups, which lets you set up small groups of Facebook friends with whom you can share updates, snapshots and videos, and Facebook’s revamped messaging system also lets you chat with small groups of pals all at once.

here’s the thing: While it has a lot of catching up to do before it can seriously challenge the 750-million-member strong Facebook as a social network, Google seems determined to keep trying—and goodness knows, it certainly has the resources to keep trying.

Based on the (only mildly interesting) features we’ve seen today, though, I’m not sure Google+ is the silver bullet that Google’s been hoping for.

That’s just my take, though; what about you? Will Google+ give Facebook a run for its money?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwnJ5Bl4kLI&w=550]

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