Google+ Ripples creates an interactive graphic of the public shares of any public post on Google+ to show you how a post has rippled through the network and help you discover new and interesting people to follow. Ripples shows you:
- Who has publicly shared the post and the comments they’ve made
People who have reshared the post will be displayed with their own circle. Inside the circle will be people who have reshared the post from that person (and so on). Circles are roughly sized based on the relative influence of that person.
The comments users added when they reshared a post is displayed in the sidebar of Ripples. If the person’s name is visible in the visualization, their comment will be displayed in the sidebar. Try zooming in and out and moving around to see different comments! (You can also view the comments people made on their reshare by hovering over their name in the Ripples visualization.) - How a post was shared over time
At the bottom of the Ripples page, you can play an animated version of the visualization that shows how the post was shared over time. You can also see a line graph that illustrates activity on the post.
- Statistics on how a post was shared
Beneath the timeline on the Ripples page statistics on the post. You can check out people who were sharing hubs (people who had the most reshares of the post), statistics for how the post was shared, and the native language breakdown in which the post was shared.
While Ripples displays a lot of cool information, you’re not actually seeing all the action that’s taken place. For starters, Ripples only uses public shares, so there may be a discrepancy between the number of shares that you see on a post in the stream and the number of shares that Ripples displays. Additionally, Ripples only shows data for the previous 53 days.
You can access Ripples from any public post in your stream. Just click the dropdown arrow at the top of the post you’re curious about and click View Ripples.
Not sure if a post is public? Look at the top of the post next to the time stamp. If the post is public, ‘Public’ will be displayed.
If you find a particularly interesting Ripples visualization, it’s easy to share it with your circles. While viewing the ripple, just copy the URL and share the link in your stream.