Searching Google+ by #hashtag with Explore+

In December 2013, Google added a search by category function called Explore+ to its Google+ social network, Explore+ allows you to search by #hashtag and to potentially create a socially-curated newsletter similar to Flipboard. According to Google, Explore+ is initially available in English for desktop users and for Android (big surprise there).

Here’s a post from Google engineer Steve Farrell that explains more about Explore+.

Google+ Explore+ allows you to search by hashtag and bring up relevant content, much like you’d do in Twitter. For its preset categories, such as #technology, #gaming, #foodanddrink, etc., Explore+ is also supposed to offer a Flipboard-like view which could allow you to treat it like a news reader.

To get to Explore+, open your Google+ account and click on the Explore link off the top menu bar. It looks interesting and could be something worth further exploration. I tried searching with some of my subject matter interests such as #ibmi, #linkedin, etc. and it brought up a decent amount of posts.

I’m starting to play with Explore+ a little but it might be an upcoming  posting strategy to insert relevant hashtags into your Google+ posts so they can be more easily found in Explorer+ (such as #googleplus). Google+ already automatically tags posts with its own hashtags.

More to come later.