Google+ debuts 'sliders' to help users de-clog their streams

Let's face it, some people's posts are more important than others -- now, Google's social network has a feature that lets users control what they see and share in their Circles stream.

Google+'s new "sliders" lets users control what they most want to see on the social network.(Credit: Google)

 

Google Plus launched a new feature today called "sliders" that lets users decide how and when they want to tone down information from their Circles that may be clogging up their stream.

The idea is to give users more control on what they see, learn, and share on Google's social network. It's similar to Facebook's "hide stories" feature where users can decide if they want to see all, most, most important, or no status updates from their friends. 

Google+ launched volume "sliders" last year, extending it across the entire social network. What it's announcing today is even more specific ways users can control their Circles stream.

Here's how Austin Chang from Google+'s team described the new features in a blog post today:

1. Whether it's family members or epic bros, we've all got circles of friends whose content we don't want to miss. By moving a circle's slider all the way to the right, you can now get notified whenever they share something new.
2. For these select circles, we often have news we really want to share -- like getting engaged, or landing a job. In these cases you can now check "Also send email" when sharing, to help make sure your friends see your message.
3. Finally, we all have a chatty Cathy (or Charles) in our circles. We still want to enjoy their posts in the stream, but we don't want a notification every time they share with us. Now you can do exactly that: just click "Mute" from notifications or their profile.

Chang noted that the "sliders" should be completely rolled out within the next couple of days. These new controls come as the Google+ also recently announced that vanity URLs personalized to users' accounts will be debuting on the social network in the near future.