So I was going through my Google+ feed this morning, when I was shocked to find a rather obscene #selfie.
I figured I had erroneously followed someone with poor taste.
It happens.
But wait, it wasn’t someone I follow! It was Google+ feeding me smut!
Here’s what happened:
What Happened
It turns out that Google has a featured called, “What’s Hot and Recommended”:
I’ve ran into some obscene on Pinterest and Facebook, but it’s only because those I am following are shady and I promptly un-follow them. It’s just part of living a clean online life. I refuse to follow those who push obscenity and pornography in my feed. The last thing I need to worry about is my kid walking into the room while I’m on the computer, or even worse, getting lured into online pornography.
So here’s another “helpful” Google feature I’ll be turning off to avoid more of this stuff.
How to Turn Off the Google+ “What’s Hot and Recommended”
Thankfully, Google+ makes this easy to turn-off.
Here’s how:
If you don’t see any “What’s Hot and Recommended” posts in your news feed, you can get to it by using your sidebar menu like so:
This is the downside of this “feature.”
Even though you’ve successfully turned-off “What’s Hot and Recommended,” you can still easily access it. Hopefully by removing it from your news feed, you can make it easier to righteously live online—at least for now.
Come on guys. Go ahead and login to Google+ and turn it off. You don’t need to know what’s “Hot” on Google+.
Dustin W. Stout says
Yea, I ran into that same photo yesterday. But I actually love the What’s Hot section! Sometimes it’s full of good stuff, and other times, it’s not so much. But I’ve never run across something like that until yesterday.
It’s a great feature though IMO because it’s more than just “What’s trending” it’s a mixture of what’s actually trending and what Google+ thinks you’ll like (another Recommendation component). My wife actually spends most of her Google+ surfing there. Where else would we have seen this most epic dodgeball move of all time – http://plus.google.com/113298122252489034955/posts/PRY6P8odhku – eh? lol
Eric Dye says
If these trends continue, I’m sure your wife (and I hope you) will take the “path less travelled” on this one.
Dustin W. Stout says
If these trends continue, it’s because someone at Google+ fell asleep at the wheel. Google’s ability to serve up relevant content is it’s bread and butter.
Eric Dye says
Well it looks like SOMEONE fell asleep at Google yesterday… 😛
Barry Desautels says
Thank you Eric. Enough is enough with this Google feature.
Pat Kane says
Thank you, I searched high and low for a solution to this. I reckon if I had said a prayer, I would have no doubt found you a lot sooner. I got a “join our cougar club” in my whats hot and recommended in my google plus feed and my page is only for gamers. So I’d have fainted if some young children had visited, it could have been disastrous. My reputation would have been ruined. Thank you God. Well done brother, well done indeed.
There were some really beautiful photos of scenes around the planet posted from the “what’s hot and recommmended” and some really cool updates on motorcycles and cars, but I didn’t see the cougar stuff coming. Take care brother, many thanks…kind regards…pat : )
Eric Dye says
You got, Pat. You got it… 😉
Pamela T. says
Thank you! This helped me get rid of the single most annoying part of Google+ I’ve experienced since Facebook kicked me off because I wouldn’t essentially put myself in danger and give them all my personal info just to keep using FB. The “What’s Hot” thing really shouldn’t even be turned on by default because it gives a bad first impression and takes some know-how to turn off. Thanks for walking me through it!
Eric Dye says
🙂