Less than a day ago, Google announced its Google+ ‘social network’ like experiment. Currently, Google+ is in invite-based testing only. But this seems to be a big experiment and Google is likely putting a lot of effort behind this.
Hit the break to know everything about this upcoming product.
What is it?
Google+ is a social layer on top of existing Google services, including search. Remember the black header refresh that seems to be coming? Google+ will be integrated into it. Google+, to me seems like a fixed up version of every social network out there.
Google+ is made up of several parts. Google’s videos explain each and every feature in it separately.
+Circles
Google+ is based on ‘friend circles’. You can manage your friends and divide them into ‘circles’ which allows you to share stuff only with a certain friend circle.
Google+ will use an HTML5 interface, which will allow you to drag and drop friends into circles.
+Sparks
+Hangouts
+Huddle
+Mobile
Conclusion
+Sparks
Sparks+ is an engine that will allow you to add things as your ‘interests’ so that people will be able to talk to you about things you like. Somehow, you will be able to share videos, photos and other cool things from the web with relevant friends.
+Hangouts
Google +Hangouts will be a platform for group video chat. You will be able to see the ‘Hangouts’ that are currently going on among your friends. And join them. Thus, you won’t annoy all your friends by using a messenger app that pings everyone to say that you are online.
+Huddle
Google says
“Coordinating with friends and family in real-time is really hard in real life. After all, everyone's on different schedules, in different places, and plans can change at any moment. Phone calls and text messages can work in a pinch, but they're not quite right for getting the gang together.”
But +Huddle is similar to contacting several people at once using group text messaging. You will be able to have targeted conversation with a certain friend circle.
+Mobile
Yes, of course there had to be a mobile element to it. +Mobile is a way to stay connected with your friends on the go. And unlike Twitter or Facebook, Google +Mobile is a heavily location based thing. The social network on your phone will be connected to the real world. And of course there are features like Instant Upload, which allows you (by permission) to add photos from your phone directly into a cloud-based album that friends will be able to check out. This is not a revolutionary idea. Facebook and Twitter already have this.
Google+ to me seems promising. But considering that over 750million people already use Facebook, in order for Google+ to succeed, people should quickly accept it. Google is touting their trustworthiness just to get a lot of people to start using their service as quickly as possible.
If you want to help test this new service, you can start from over here. Again, this is invite based for now, and there is no guarantee that you will be accepted. The Android app for Google+ is also available from today over here.
Also, do you think this new ‘social network’ will succeed in the long run? Let me know in the comments. I will read every one of them.
[via Official Google Blog]
