Google + is Google's social network and was launched in June 2011.
Google + is Google's social network and was launched in June 2011. It is made up of several components which are Stream, Sparks, Hangouts, Huddle, Circles and Photos. As we understand it, there will be other features launched at a future date including Google + for business. Google + is currently only for "personal" users.
It's clear that Google have put a lot of thought (and money) into this project and want to establish themselves as the premier social network of the future alongside Facebook.
At the time of writing you have to be invited by another user to join. Once you have accepted your invitation you have to set up your public Google Profile.
Set up Your Google Profile
You will be asked to complete all the usual information such as adding a photo, contact details, date of birth, employment etc but the most important is your background since it tells visitors to your profile exactly what you want them to know. You can also set up links to all of your other social media here as well as your website(s) so that visitors can connect with you in as many ways as you would like them to.
Privacy
You should also take time to customise your privacy settings when setting up your profile. Just click on the 'gear' icon to change and view your settings
Circles
Circles are the places that you organise your friends and you can drag and drop people into as many circles as you wish. There are a number of default circles created for you but you can create as many as you wish. Circles can easily be renamed or deleted. The benefit of circles is that you can share different content with different groups of people.
Stream
Your stream is a newsfeed of the latest content shared by your circles and can be anything from a status update to a photo or video or a link to a piece of content such as a blog post for example. You can '+1' a piece of content (akin to Facebook 'like'). When you want to share some content you choose who you share it with - it might be public (all your circles) or selected circles or individuals. You can filter your stream using the left hand navigation.
Sparks
Sparks is where you can search for content you are interested in. You can then create a Spark Category and always see the latest information on that subject. This content can then easily be shared with your circles. For example if you had an internet marketing business then one of your 'Sparks' might be "Internet Marketing". It it were skiing then you might have one called "skiing". Whenever you click on one of your own 'Sparks' you will get the latest content displayed to you.
Hangouts
In hangouts you can hold a group video chat. When you start a hangout your friends will see the hangout prompt in their stream and can join the hangout. The maximum number of participants at one time is ten. There is also a group text chat feature that can be used here.
Photos
In photos you can see recently uploaded photos of your friends, check out photos you have been tagged in and create albums.
Mobile
Google + is currently only available on the android operating system. There are currently two features - 'huddle' for group text chat and 'instant upload' where you can sync your pictures with your desktop.
Google + is definitely a work in progress and it is clear this is going to evolve into a very powerful platform to compete with Facebook. Once their business platform launches it will be interesting to see what advantages there are over Facebook and how they are going to monetise it.
There are obviously going to be pros and cons of Google + but our first impression has been very positive and looking forward to seeing the platform develop.
