[_ankit_]

I agree that you can't have every product fit every person, but isn't one of the primary selling points of Google+ that "you can have private conversations with small groups of family and friends". I would personally think the features and UX should be designed keeping that in mind.

Even saying so, a lot of the points I say there are potential usability issues for everyone (at least for me they are). For example, the big banner ads for mobile apps and Hangouts.

I agree, the title is a bit misleading. By "setup", I meant creating an account and simplifying the user interface, and explaining to my mom how to start hangouts, share photos, etc.

[bmelton]

Perhaps that's my point of contention. I think that, for sharing to small groups of individuals, G+ is the best platform around (though I haven't tried EveryMe as they aren't on Android). I type a message, I type a group or two, I hit enter. Done.

Sharing is simple.

Where it seems like your complaints lie are in getting too much information - above and beyond what has been shared.

To me, I suppose that's small potatoes. I get the occasional distraction in my stream, but Google's usually smart enough to make it relevant, and about half the time I see something from outside of my circles, it ends up drawing me into a conversation.

I am decidedly not your mom, and I don't mind it. Also, my stream is active enough that those 'outsiders' ever take up any significant percentage of it, so perhaps I'm unable to see it from her point of view, but I don't think that showing me things I like, that I might otherwise have missed, is a 'problem' that needs to be 'fixed'.

Again, just my opinion. Can I ask what other social networks your mom has used, and how she found those, in comparison?

[_ankit_]

Yes, it does depend how one is using Google+. I primarily use it to interact with small groups of friends and family who are using Google+ (which is not a lot), which might be very different from how you use it.

Also, these views are all mine, what triggered them was the annoyances I came across as I was trying to simplify the Google+ interface for my mom. I find Google+ great for sharing links, photos and doing hangouts and I definitely don't know of a better or simpler solution for private sharing among groups of people. Like you said, it is really simple to share.

I do feel strongly about letting users easily opt out of getting too much information. If I want to see what's trending, I can visit the Explore tab. Like the left navigation, maybe it makes sense to let you hide stuff on the right sidebar as well.

My main annoyance though is with the persistent adverts (the banners you see on Explore, Hangout and Photos pages). And the "in your face" banner that you cannot get rid of, if you have less than 10 people in Circles. The only way is to add strangers to your Circles to get rid of it. Would it be too bad to have a "X" icon on the top right to get rid of these?