Google+ wants to make sure some of their features represent those real-life relationships we all have (you do have those right?), so they’ve introduced a couple of new options.

The new options are called ignore and block. So, just like IRL (in real life) you can choose who you connect with and who you don’t. I’m not sure if I’ve ever blocked someone in person, but I’ve been known to ignore a time or two.

Olga Wichrowska posted about these new options yesterday evening.

The Block option “limits the ways a person can interact with what you’re sharing”;  meaning you have absolutely no desire to have anything to do with them. They’ll be removed from your circles, they won’t be able to interact with you by commenting on your posts and you won’t see their stream.

The Ignore option means “you’ll see less of what a person is sharing”. In other words they are boring you, you’re not interested in what they have to say but you don’t mind them still interacting with your content.

Google+ says they will not let the person know you have blocked or ignored them, although I think the blocking option will become fairly obvious to them when they can’t interact with you.

If you change your mind about the person, you can always un-ignore or un-block them by going to the “More Actions” on the Circles page.

Google+ started the roll-out of these options yesterday, so keep an eye out for them. There are several different places to find both of these options on your Google+ profile, which are explained in the video below, as well as the transcript version here.