Upload contacts to Google+ via your address book

New to Google+ and looking for more contacts? A feature launched yesterday lets you hunt for potential prospects by uploading your address book from Microsoft Outlook and other desktop e-mail clients.

As described in a Google+ post by Google technical staff member Paul Lindner, the feature works with several e-mail and address book programs beyond Outlook, including Outlook Express, Mozilla's Thunderbird, and Apple's Address Book. But it apparently also supports any e-mail address book or contact list that can be exported to a VCard/VCF or CSV (comma separated values) format.

I tested the feature using Microsoft Outlook 2010, though because of the Ribbon interface, I wasn't able to follow Lindner's instructions exactly. Outlook 2010 and 2007 users can export their contact list using the following steps:

1. In Outlook, click the File tab and select Options.
2. In the Outlook options window, click Advanced.
3. In the Export section, click the Export button.
4. In the Import and Export Wizard, choose the option: Export to a File and click Next.
5. In the Export to a File window, choose the option: Comma Separated Values (Windows) and click Next.
6. In the next window, scroll to the top of the tree and select Contacts and then click Next.
7. In the next window, choose a name and location for the CSV file.
8. In the next window, click Finish to export your contacts.

Your next step is to import your contacts into Google+. To do that:

1. Open your Google+ account and click the link to Upload Address Book.
2. Browse to and select your CSV file.

You should now see all your contacts appear among the list of potential candidates to invite or add to your Google+ circles. You can identify your imported contacts because they'll display a small green box in the upper right corner.