Google+ is Now Here (For Everyone)

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few weeks or you simply don’t follow tech news too much you have probably heard about the arrival of Google+. This is Google’s new social network which is set to compete with social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter. This is no small task and if there’s an online powerhouse who can successfully attempt this it has to be Google.

So far, the amount of people who had the chance to create a Google+ profile and to actually use the field trial version was limited, But now, since September 20th, this new social network has been open to all. Simply go to google.com/+ if you are interested in signing in or in simply finding out more about it. Taking its time on this release, Google Plus offers most of the same features as the social media giant Facebook while aiming at offering other cool new features or what can be considered as upgrades of what’s already been done. Learn about Circles+, Hangouts and +1 below.

Circles+

With Google+ you can basically build a social network the same way you normally would, the first big difference is that you will be able to do it with a selected group of friends, thanks to what Google calls : “Circles+”. Enabling users to share with various social groups, called Circles, instead of with a mass group of friends. Friends, co-workers and relatives can now be grouped together according to the users will. This is has been designed to be easy to manage, a simple drag-and-drop will do the trick.

Hangouts

Another cool feature is the Group Video Chat, also referred to as : “Hangouts”. The way this works is that you can simply start a hangout, instantly letting your social circles know that you are willing to “hang out”. They can then decide to join in or not and up to 10 people can simultaneously participate in the same “hangout” at the same time, creating an accessible video chatroom. This formula sorts of flips the chatroom game a little bit, letting people come to you instead of having to ask people to chat with you. One could compare this to how Skype works, the only main difference is the number of people you can interact with at the same time.

+1

The +1 button is there to enable users to let their friends know what sparked their interest. It can either be videos, articles, pictures and more grouped by their type of content. The aim is to make Google+ a one-stop platform for their users to share and discover content that matters to them. Just +1 something you liked online and let everyone know about it.

For the rest, we will definitely be updating this post about Google Plus in the near future as we further discover it. Needless to say, this new social network has gotten the online community excited and wondering about what impact it will have on us and on the social media hierarchy. Maybe you have realized that Facebook was going through a lot of changes recently, could the arrival of Google+ have anything to do with it? Only time will tell if Google has finally succeeded to crack the social media nut.