What is Google+? Essentially, Google+ is the search engine giant’s effort to develop a social network to rival Facebook. Google+ acts as a “personal profile” extension of your Google account, and closely interacts with other Google products such as gmail, Google docs, etc.
When first launched in June 2011, Google+ was only available through invites from current users. As of September, the social network is now available to the general public. Get your profile started today by logging into your Google account (or create one at www.gmail.com). Click on your email address in the upper right hand corner and click “Create Profile” to get started.
After you’ve filled out your information, your Google+ profile will appear in the left hand corner as “+Your Name” as soon as you sign in. (screen shot).
Google+ allows you to add a profile complete with photos, personal information, games and more. The main components include a Stream (a “newsfeed” type feature), Hangouts (video chatting), and the ability to group your connections into Circles according to your relationships (close friends, acquaintances, coworkers, etc.).
One of the main draws to this social network is that you can adjust your status updates (or “shares”) to apply exclusively to different circles. For example, you can direct certain updates towards your “coworkers” circle or only your “close friends” circle. While it is possible to create lists on Facebook that operate in a similar manner, it is a much more complicated process.
You may have heard about the recent launch of Google+ Brand Pages, comparable to Facebook’s fan pages, which was announced just last week. In future posts, we will go into greater detail about these new pages, so be sure to stay tuned.
Our thoughts? Currently, there are about 40 million Google+ users (compared to FB’s 850+ million users). However, there is a great deal of debate about how many of these users are actually active on the network. While Google+ does seem to offer some distinct advantages to other social media sites, it still seems to be too soon to tell. The true test will come in time, and will depend largely on their ability to keep up the momentum.
