Does sharing Public posts with an additional circle make a difference in Google+?

Question

In Google+'s “Add circles or people to share with...” box, I can enter “Public”, making the post visible to/shared with everyone. I can also enter a circle, with or without the “Notify about this post” option.

Is there any difference at all between these two cases?

• a post which is shared with “Public”
• a post which is shared with “Public” and with one of my circles, without Notify

Answer 1

I believe public allows all circles to see it. So therefore both should do the same thing.

Answer 2

If you want a definitive answer: it makes no different.

Sharing in Google+ is not about pushing things into one's Streams, it's about allowing content to shop up in Streams of people that want to see it, that are following you.

So whether sharing public or public + circle, posts shared public will allow the post to appear in any stream of any person following you. So the additional circle makes absolutely no difference. Sharing to a circles allows the people in it to see your post if they want to, sharing to the public allows everyone to do it.

Everyone + certain group = everyone, it's that simple. I hope this answer is definitive enough for you :)

Answer 3

No, there's no difference:

• People who have you in their circles will see your post in their stream, regardless whether they are in your chosen circle or not.
• People who don't have you in their circles will see your post if they visit your profile.