How do I link to a blog entry from Google Plus?

I don't know that there are any "tricks", per se, for pointing to your content from a Google Plus stream update. In fact, it's surprisingly similar to how you'd accomplish the same task on Facebook, one area where Google hasn't (yet) wowed us with innovation.

Still, it's worth demonstrating how to add an external link since I imagine a lot of people will use G+ to point people to their content elsewhere on the Web. Walled gardens and all that...

For this demonstration, I'm going to link to an article I wrote in the local newspaper about video game systems, and to get that URL I simply went to the page then copied the address out of the browser's address bar.

Now, on G+, I go to enter a status update, um, err, Stream update:

Notice that there's a "link" button on the right side of the input box, along with photos, video and a place check-in option. You can ignore these if you want, but I'm going to click on the link button (the third, going left to right). Now it prompts me for the URL:

I can already tweak which Circle I want to share this with, or add specific people if I want a private message or group discussion, but let's stay focused. I'll paste the URL into the box provided and click "Add":

It did a great job grabbing the description from the page, so I won't click on the "Remove description" link, but pay attention, sometimes these sort of scanners pick up something that's not actually descriptive of the page and therefore not beneficial to include.

I want to add some additional text on the Stream update to hopefully entice people to click through and read the article, so I type in a sentence or two:

Hmm... do I want to share this with Public? I can remove it if I want by clicking on the tiny "x" just to the right of the word "Public" in the green button, but I'll instead click on "Add more people" to see what my options are:

Upon further reflection, I decide that Public works fine and click on the dark green "Share" button. The result is reasonably attractive, though it could do with a graphic or image to enhance the result (if your page includes images, you'll have the chance to pick one as a thumbnail too. The article I wrote didn't include any graphics, however, which is why it wasn't shown as an option to me):

Before we leave this, let me show you something really cool too. See that tiny downward triangle button on the top right of that image? Click on it and you'll see a menu of options that really help differentiate G+ from the Facebook world:

My personal favorite is "Edit this post" (how nice, we can fix typos without having to delete and repost!) but note you can also disable comments if you don't want people adding their two cents, and you can also prevent your Stream update from being shared with people in other Circles if you're so inclined. Could be useful if you're trying to limit the dissemination of the information, though in that instance you might just want to skip the social network at all. Your call. Important to note, though, is that posting doesn't mean you've lost control of your information.

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