After using Google+ for about 24 hrs, and I mean not getting off of it except for a few hours of sleep, I think that I can already make a list of my favorite features:
- Circles that let you group people
- Notifications you can see when you are using other (but not all) Google sites
- Ease of use
- Clean look
- Not being Facebook (this alone is enough)
- etc
However, at the very top of my list are Google+ Sparks.
Google+ Sparks explained
Google+ Sparks is a feature you can use to get all the info about your interests (if you can’t see it by clicking the link, here is a screenshot).
Click to enlarge
You can click on any of the images (categories) you want, and add it to your interests. I chose to type in my interests instead, and keep up with stuff I am interested in. Creating a spark “Movies” just seems like too much.
Once you chose your interests, you will be able to see a link to each of them under your profile picture. Any time you want to see what is going on in the world, that is related to your interest, click on it and you will get a page filled with news, posts, information.
For example, I can stay up to date with anything related to “blogging”, “Serbia” or which ever interest I add, as you can see it in my list of Sparks.
So today I go to check what is going on in my country. I click on the Spark named Serbia and see the list of posts mentioning it.
I saw an interesting post about a Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic, who just made it to the Top of ATP list and is the tennis player No 1 on the world.
I wanted to share it with my friends on Google+ and all I had to do is click share.
After clicking Share, you get a share box to show up. Sharing is pretty simple, same as Facebook:
Click to enlarge
Clicking Share will send it to my stream and people that have me in one of their circles (following me) can see it.
Update 9/23/2011
Please watch this video if you can not find Sparks in your profile.
Why I like Google+ Sparks?
The main thing is staying up to date with my interests.
Of course, I can go to Google News for that, but this is all in Google+. I don’t have to open Google and do a search for news, it is one click away in my preset Sparks.
When I see a spark I like, I can share it with friends.
I can make it public (like in the screenshot above) or I can share if with only some of my circles. If I was sharing a blogging related post, I could have made it visible just to my blogging circle.
I can also share this post directly with someone, by typing in their email and sending it.
The main advantage of this, over other ways of doing it is the simplicity. You can check the Spark with one click while using Google+ and then share it.
I can’t see staying up to date and sharing being any easier than this.
I see this like having Google Alerts, News, Search and Facebook sharing all in one.
What do you think about all this?
If you have not heard about Google+, the new social network (that might take a lot away from Facebook), I sent a lot of invites to my newsletter subscribers. To stay up to date and receive some cool stuff I have for my subscribers from time to time, you should subscribe 
Related posts:
I have just discovered Google + Sparks. I was wondering where the information is coming from? At first it seemed that it was just from within Google+, but then again, when I looked closer, it seems that it it’s from everyhwere
I really enjoy this feature as well, and to me, this seems a lot like Google Alerts… but it’s probably way more advanced. I am still testing it. I really like how easy it is to share, and especially how easy it is to share it with the right people (not just everybody).
Jens, my thoughts exactly, and I really hope the results will be pretty much the same as Alerts cause they are pretty good. Alerts with the possibility to share, can it get any better
Hey Brankica,
Can you send the invites as even I wanted to send but it says not available as if now,let me check if Google has enabled sending via email again
I have been sending invites by sharing a random post and sending it directly to a gmail address. I works BUT not all the time. Some of the invitations I sent yesterday came to inboxes today. Seems Google is “opening” and “closing” sign ups from time to time.
Yup I figured it out now working sometimes,hey you removed that comment system hmmm even I dint like it disqus is much better
I was using Livefyre actually
Yeah got it dint remember the name,disqus is much better than livefyre anyhow bydefault comment system of wp is also good I was on blogger so switched to disqus as its comment system is poor with no option to protect spam but since I installed disqus havent got a single spam comment apart from yesterday which is the topic of my next post lolz
Hi Brankica
You are always so fast to figure out the new stuff on the net. Thank good you are kind enough to share with us 
It sounds cool and simple, but I can’t get it yet. It is still in some kind of limited trial period for a small number of users. Somehow you have managed to get in on it. Not really a big surprise to me
Thomas, e-mail me your gmail address, I will try to send you the invite. You will get it eventually but some of those I sent took 12 hrs to reach the e-mails. Google is opening and closing for certain amounts of time. It is still beta so I guess they are testing stuff.
Hey Brankica,
Can I get the link, too?
Link to what?
I was just trying to figure out Sparks when I read your update! Loved it. I am thinking of putting in so many interests and it works like such a dream! Till now, I have put in four categories and I am thinking about putting in some weird ones just for the fun of it!
I am already in love with Google +; like you said, it took me much less than 2 months!
P.S. Novak Djokovic is my favorite player!
Hey Hajra, I am about to dig even deeper into Sparks
PS I bet you are as happy as I am, being that Novak is No 1 in the world starting today
I haven’t used Sparks yet but overall Google+ is definitely cool. I really like their use of circles and how you can easily see the streams from each. Looking forward to seeing what else Google adds. I’m sure there’s a metric ton of awesome on the way.
I am liking everything for now
It is pretty addictive as far as I am concerned.
You know, Facebook had most of these features already (like seeing a stream of only certain people) but Google made it so easy to use that they are actually being used.
With FB it was so complicated to set everything up but Google+ really did it well.
Hello Brankica, thank you for bringing this up. I have not been using Google +1 till now because I have not seen any major benefits (just thought this is another social media product with no real added value). However after reading this I might have a closer look on the sparks feature. Looks really interesting.
Thanks
Adam
Hey Adam, I think this Plus thing might finally be a success for Google, I know time will show but people are liking it a lot and with all the cool features that were complicated or non existent in Facebook, this just might be the next big thing.
This explanation of Sparks has convinced me, more than anything else I have read about Google+ so far, that this will deal a major blow to facebook. I like the ability to easily control your sharing circles.
Do you have any invites left?
Tracie, I will send it to you now (to the e-mail you commented with) and will e-mail you an explanation how to get in. We are kinda working around those invites now, cause Google opens and closes the log ins for hours at the time.
Thanks to you, I found out about the usefulness of Sparks, and it is really quite interesting that you can share posts with “people” that are relevant to that posts. Really awesome and BTW, I totally agree with the list of your favorites on G+.
The more I use it the more I like it. There are so many options there that I can see myself spending hours and hours on Google+ (which I am).
Facebook already had some of the options G+ has but they were complicated to use.
Complicated? FB, nah! To me it is as black and white as Chinese, lol…
BTW, off topic and don’t get me wrong. If I may ask, I noticed you are no longer using CLuv? Any special reason?
I switched to Livefyre for a few weeks and was planning to keep it, however I came back to WP comments.
In the mean time read some comments here and on other blogs that people won’t comment here because I removed ComLuv. ComLuv plugin changed and I just never got around to installing it and probably won’t.
I have less spammers and bloggers-who-only-care-about-links commenting now. They obviously missed the fact that this blog has many PR 1, 2, 3 and even 4 pages now.
I will just keep linking from posts to those who deserve links (like you and few others).
Hi Brankica. I understand and respect your opinion. That is probably one of the downsides I see on ComLuv.. people are not using it as it is intended to. They just want links and on top of that, do not even take the time to leave any meaningful comment that can add value to the discussion. In addition, I have started to see many comments here and there, with links to bad neighborhood and this could be a problem..
Anyway, off topic. Sorry about that.
You can get off topic as much as you want
I really love(d) ComLuv but started getting more and more links to bad blogs. Some of them were good comments so it is a choice between linking to bad blogs or deleting a good comment. Also, I can’t just remove the CL link, and leave the comment, that would be even worse on my side.
Also, the CL update confused me at first and I didn’t bother to learn more about it.
Bottom line, I am always testing and trying
If I lose those who only comment for link, honestly, it isn’t a big loss. However, all the bigger blogs removed it so I wanted to see how it would work here.
I am always thinking about what to do next so no decision is final on this blog, who knows what will I decide later.
However, I am also thinking, if there are less links on the page (by reducing CL links) the links I add to the posts are gonna have more value. That is better for people I link to which are those I vouch for. The best of the best.
Some of my round up posts have PR 2 now and I like giving all the juice to those great posts listed on the round up pages.
Hope this isn’t a bad decision, what do you think?
A decision is a decision and what could be bad for one good be good for the other. It all depends on what “your” commenters are after.. to contribute to a discussion or getting links. I all in for the first choice as I prefer quality over quantity. My decision to leave a comment is because I want to participate or add something, and not for links. And judging by the comments you have here, it seems that no one really is bothered by the lack of added links
Anyway, in my view, I think you’ve made a wise choice and your links inside a post will definitely be of more value, not just because of the juice in itself, but because YOU put it there… That is priceless.
Awww, thank you. You always make my day, Francisco, I mean it!
Spark is a great feature. I am using + for less than 24 hrs (earlier I got lots of invites, but couldn’t get through) and I am already addicted to it. Some features are similar to FB but as you say here, lots of simplicity AND more importantly privacy. I hate FB for that!
I think G+ developers just fixed everything that was wrong with FB
I did write on google+ and many people have nothing but praises. Looks like it will take off. Nice site!
I agree with you and hope it will take off and stay around.
Hi Brankica,
I don’t know why, but following your link to Google sparks allowed me entering to G+, perhaps was your shared link also before via FB
woot!
and it’s funny because I’ve notifications waiting, even, before I joined it LOL.
Now it’s time to learn slowly how to use it
Perhaps you explained before, but I lost it (as so many posts everywhere lately for me), but what happened with the livefire comment system?
Now to read carefully all about G+ and sparks too!
Have a great week,
Gera
Hey Gera, glad you got it. Seems Google opens the doors for new users several hours a day and all you gotta do is click at the right moment, lol.
I removed Livefyre because it didn’t have a few features I want from my commenting system. It is great and I might bring it back one day, but for now, I am going to use this default system.
I have been trying to avoid exploring Google+ Sparks. But now I see I absolutely have to. Thanks for the review!
Lol, I always try to avoid some stuff (like I was actually planning to avoid Google+) but end up being persuaded in changing my mind
I really like the Sparks too. I hope Google will eventually try to tailor the Featured Interests to the user. I have discovered one problem with Sparks: you need to be fairly specific with your interest, just like when you do a Google search. If you type “dogs” in the box, yes, you’ll get information about the canine type of dogs, but you also end up with info about hot dogs!
Lol, yeah, something like with Google Alerts or any search, but we will figure it out slowly
Ok, I write articles and content, it’s pretty easy to share your articles on FB, but somehow I cant figure out how to do that on Sparks. the only content is the one you receive according to interest, how do you “send” content to Sparks channels ?
You don’t send it. It is similar to Google Alerts.
Brankica:
Great breakdown of Google Sparks. I just recently received an invite and am looking forward to digging into Google+. Thanks for laying it all out so it’s easily understood!
Bapun
You are welcome, Bapun, and I hope you will like Google + as much as I do
Isn’t this what google wave wasa supposed to accomplish when the experts at google decided to release it to the public? I couldn’t understand it. I liked your observations of google + sparks and would like to give it a try. It sounds like it could save me lots of time as well as help me organize and acquire new information.
I’ll try and give it a try.
I actually didn’t try any of those failed Google products. I do hope this one will stick around
Hi,
I have joined Google+ yesterday. I have seen some options, and i think it can be better than Facebook. I like it very much.
To be honest, now I have to learn several things about it. So, I am so glad for all this articles about Google+. Thanks!
You are certainly number one guide for Google+ !
Lol, thanks, and yeah, you better get on it
Hey Brankica,
Thanks for sharing about Google+ Sparks, its so rightly named ‘spark’ since it sparks off important information. If there’s no need for me to open Google to search for news but get the info from the preset sparks, its definitely a faster alternative. I’ll check on this.
Hi Brankica
I joined the Google+ today so this little intro was just what I needed to get started. I have of cause already added you to my Circles.
See you there Bran
I just got into Google+ yesterday and I am really having a blast in it. I’m just starting to learn about google sparks, which is really a neat way to share news. I can see that this can easily get news to go viral. The other feature I’m really enjoying so far is hangouts. I can see that becoming a way to start up informal webinars for good sized groups.
After 6-7weeks of use, what is your opinion of Google+ now? Which features do you like the best?
When I read the post soon after you published it, I couldn’t understand what Sparks was. Now I see how useful it will be.
At first I could not get in, then decided to wait to see if Google+ was going to be worth having. It looks like it is. Thanks for your excellent summary.
I can’t see the sparks link in the left menu. Can someone tell me what i am doing wrong?
They updated it. They removed the link to Sparks, I can still see mine when I chose one of the topics I had set up before and click on it.
That page will bring 4 links on the topic:
- everything
- people
- google+ posts
- sparks
So do i have to save the search now?
I don’t know why, but i have the feeling, that there’s something wrong with my google+
. When i search something i can only save the search, but i can’t add anything to my “interests”. I even can’t edit them. When i click on “edit my interests” i only see the search results for “google” in the main block. …?
If you save it, it will put it in the left hand side link list, where the sparks used to be and you can click to see them any time, but there will always be those same 4 options. So you will click on the saved search on the left and then choose sparks (the 4th link). So it is kinda like saving interests but not exactly like the sparks used to be.
Ok then how to create a spark? I can’t see anything related to sparks in my profile. Is it required to enable from profile setting?
It is explained in the video, have you seen it?