A couple things to do if you don't yet have an invite

[elke_tanzer]

I'm just brainstorming here... what else am I forgetting? (I mean, aside from non-Google-related things!)

- in Gmail, go to Mail Settings, then the Themes tab, and select one of the two new themes which are a preview of the new Gmail look. They're called 'Preview' and 'Preview (Dense)'.
- check out the new Google Calendar look and feel (which goes right along with the new Gmail previews)
- tidy up your Gmail contacts and groups
- create or update your public Google Profile via https://profiles.google.com/
- watch the Google+ demo at http://www.google.com/+/demo/
- if you've got an Android-based phone, download the Google+ App via http://www.google.com/mobile/+/
- customize your Google News preferences
- tidy up your iGoogle settings, gadgets and feeds
- tidy up your Google Reader feeds
- tidy up your Picasa albums
- tidy up your Bookmarks

(While you're at it, if you haven't already decided what you're going to do about the status of your delicious.com bookmarks, figure it out and do it. The June/July AVOS transition is upon us, apparently.)

I've spotted a few indications in various news articles and blogposts that folks who have a "strong social graph" and/or have completed Google Profiles and/or have diverse Gmail Contact lists and/or have many people in their Gmail Contact list who are already in Google+... may be getting priority for entrance. I'm not sure if I believe any of that or not. But I do know that at least for me personally, if my Contacts are a mess to start with, then building my social circles in Google+ is going to be more annoying than if my Contacts are at least slightly organized.

What else are you doing while you wait to get into Google+ ?

(ETA a day later: I'm in!)

Comments

[par_avion]

FYI, I got an unexpected invite last night from a friend while asleep and have been poking at it on and off today.

It imported not just my contacts list but the "other contacts" - email addresses that I've sent or received email from. (If you go to the contacts tab in Google there are three categories that show up:

My Contacts
Most Contacted
Other Contacts (<- has over 230 contacts here, many of which are outdated or junk)

I went back and deleted a bunch of the "Other contacts" in gmail but they still show up in Google+. And there doesn't seem to be a way to delete or hide them in Google+.

Hrmm...

[naturedance]

I've been poking at mine since last night, but have been unable to invite anyone else. :-(

I think if you're looking at the Circles page (https://plus.google.com/?tab=nX#circles ?), you can select the people who are "Other contacts" and Remove them... there's a Remove in the upper right of the screen (not in the black bar, but in the white area below that). The 'Remove' action may simply hide them rather than delete, but at least the addresses are not cluttering up the Circles interface then.

Re: Hrmm...

[par_avion]

Oh, thanks! I see it now.

When I was organizing people into circles, this window popped up out of nowhere telling me that I could invite friends .... but either it was a fakeout or I waited too long. Once I had filled in a few names and hist submit (or whatever) I got a message that invitations via email will be available soon. Ah well. It is, however, hard to demo a quasi-social network with few people there!

[darkemeralds]

Thanks for the great list of Things To Do!

I'm in, too--got in via the loophole where someone who's Really In includes you in a circle then posts and indicates that said circle members should receive the post by email.

I have some questions about tidying up and was going to ask them here, but if it's okay, I think I'll make a post of them and throw my ignorance on the mercy of the community at large. LOL!

:-)

[elke_tanzer]

I'm overheated from gardening to the point of mistyping things all over the place, and yet am headed outdoors again shortly... yay for more community discussion!