Google+ here, Google+ there. Google’s social networking service is still going strong despite the falling momentum. We have seen lots of tools, mostly browser extensions, released in the last couple weeks. Helpful for Google Plus users who need more control over the service. The one that I like most is the Google Tweaksuserscript as it offers optimizations that I find useful, collapsing comments for instance or on mouse over image previews.
But, everything so far has been browser based. What about a desktop application? That’s where Google+ Notifier fills the gap. The Open Source program adds Google Plus desktop notifications to the Windows operating system.
The program works just like any other desktop notifier. When you start it up, you need to supply your Google credentials first before you can make use of the service. You can set the account to stay signed in automatically so that you do not need to enter the Google login on next start.
Google+ Notifier sits then in the system tray of the Windows operating system. It periodically checks the Google+ account for new notifications and will display their count in the system tray and a notification popup. It currently does not provide information about individual messages received, only the message count.
The current version is limited to that. It is good to know thought that the developer plans to integrate the full notification menu of the Google+ website in the application. This is the very same menu that you can access when you click on the notifications count on Google+ directly. A mockup screenshot visualizes this on the project website.
The new design will improve the Google+ desktop notifier by a mile, considering that you can now check who is responsible for the new notifications directly on your desktop. So less clicking through to check the messages on Google+ directly.
The program does not accept copy pasting of Google account credentials currently, which means that you have to enter your email address and password manually. Not handy if you use secure passwords like I do.
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