Editor’s note: This article was first published in June 2011 the day Google+ was unveiled in a limited field trial. Its prediction that Google+ could be strong competition for Facebook did not hold: Google shut down the consumer version in April 2019.
After so many rumours about which social network Google would launch to compete with Facebook, it’s finally here, although it’s still at the project stage. This network has nothing to do with Buzz or Wave, and Google has packed in all kinds of features for both fun and professional use.
Google’s new social network, Google Plus, brings several eye-catching services:
Circles
Here there’s no concept of fans, followers or friends; instead you get a mix of all of them, divided into circles. You can split your overall circle into several smaller circles defined by interests: your friends in one, people whose posts you want to follow in another, family in another, and so on, as many small circles as you like. The new part is that what you share with your friends doesn’t have to be read by a relative or by your professional contacts.
Circles has taken the best of the other social networks, so it will be a mix of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, plus some other eye-catching services.
Sparks
A kind of planner or saved-items system, where you can keep your favourite videos, interesting articles and everything you didn’t have time to look at and will want to get to as soon as you have a free moment.
Instant Upload
As Google itself puts it, taking a photo is fun, and sharing it is fun too, but uploading it isn’t so much fun. So the network has an automatic upload app that saves you the upload step you’ve been used to until now.
Other features
The range of services is very wide, but we’d highlight Hangouts, which lets you post a get-together on the network at any time or join one.
You’ll also be able to talk with your contacts in a multi-user chat, and soon in multi-person video calls.
It’s Google technology, and honestly, this time it looks like they’re on the right track, with the added bonus of being able to tie together the hundreds of Google services we already use every day. At first glance, this network could be serious competition for Facebook, because… well, it’s Google.
Featured image: Kathryn Greenhill, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Flickr.
