Where did the patient zero Google+ post come from that's been reshared?

Question

How do you work out or find the original Google+ post and its permalink when its been shared by someone?

Say you follow Matt Cutts and one day he shares a post from Peter Norvig about Google Labs' Ngram Viewer.

When you read the post in Cutts' stream, it quotes Norvig thusly:

Peter Norvig originally shared this post:
| What we learned from 5 million books | Video on TED.com
| TED Talks Have you played with Google Labs' NGram Viewer? It's an addicting tool that lets you search for words and ideas in a database of 5 million books from across centuries. Erez Lieberman Aiden a...

That snapshot also includes how many people have +1'd the post, others who have reshared it and those who have left comments. But these are all attached to this version of the post. Especially the comments.

If you clicked on Norvig's name, you'll be taken to his stream, not the original permalink of the patient zero posting. If it's a person who updates a lot, finding it can be troublesome.

Trial and slogging error from the dump alone means your chances are better if the person sharing did so within a close timeframe to the original. You'll eventually find it if you trawl long enough.

But, is there a way to jump directly from the reshare to the original post?

Answer 1

You can see the whole history of the Post via the Ripple of the Post: https://plus.google.com/ripples/details?activityid=CzWHefUKR1T

You can get to the Ripple for popular, shared Posts by clicking the Post's context menu (the down arrow on the right) and selecting View Ripples.

I think in the post you described, Peter Norvig is the author of the first post. He may have cut & paste the "patient zero" posting instead of sharing the original, if "patient zero" was the first?