After more than a year of denials that any major social network initiative was in the works, Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) June 28 unveiled Google+, the company's take on social networking. Not to be confused with the existing Google+1 search result and ad-sharing services, Google+ is intended to alleviate certain pain points that plagued Facebook as its network grew to 700 million-plus users. For example, while Facebook users added friends, family and colleagues to one big connection pool, Google+ is designed to let users create smaller buckets of contacts that share common interests. Users may create these Circles by dragging and dropping Google Profile pictures of users into separate Circles and sharing information only within those Circles. Users may also strike up conversations around topics, called Sparks; gather in video chat rooms, called Hangouts; and instantly upload photos and videos from their mobile phones to Google+. Google isn't trying to kill Facebook with this launch; it's wisely looking to provide an alternative to the massive info-sharing (and over-sharing) occurring on the world's leading social network today. To check it out, eWEEK received an early invitation to participate in the invitation-only field test. Before we fully battle-test it, please check out this walk-through of the service we received from taking an interactive video tour.
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Touring Google+
Waiting for our invite to be processed, eWEEK takes the interactive video tour, which highlights the components that make up Google+.
Social Circles
Circles make it easy to put people in a group and begin sharing info. Users can enter friends’ names and email addresses to add them to a Circle.
Drag-and-Drop
Dragging and dropping profiles in Circles is an easy way to add people to a group.
Giving Off Sparks
Sparks is a sort of news feed/topic generation tool.
Sparks in Action
Behold! A list of interests in a user's profile.
Streaming
The social status update stream in Google+ allows users to add photos, videos, links and their location.
Hangouts
Users can join Hangouts to conduct video chats with friends in a Circle.
Huddle Up
The Huddle feature enables group messaging.
Photo, Video Uploads
Upload lets users add photos and videos from their mobile phones.
Video Tour
Take this brief video tour of Google+ to better familiarize yourself with how it works.
Mobile App
Google+ came to the Android Market for Android smartphones and tablets today. It's expected to hit Apple's App Store later.
Busted
However, after we downloaded it, we received a message saying we weren't able to access the app yet. Here's what the app looks like in this photo, and in this video.
Tapping Picasa
So, we received our invitation as we were compiling this preview. We logged in and were greeted with this offer. Where does Google+ get all of those photos? By linking users' Picasa accounts, of course!
Welcome
Here is what an official Google+ landing screen looks like. Stay tuned for more Google+ from eWEEK this week!
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After more than a year of denials that any major social network initiative was in the works, Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) June 28 unveiled Google+, the company's take on social networking. Not to be confused with the existing Google+1 search result and ad-sharing services, Google+ is intended to alleviate certain pain points that plagued Facebook as its network grew to 700 million-plus users. For example, while Facebook users added friends, family and colleagues to one big connection pool, Google+ is designed to let users create smaller buckets of contacts that share common interests. Users may create these Circles by dragging and dropping Google Profile pictures of users into separate Circles and sharing information only within those Circles. Users may also strike up conversations around topics, called Sparks; gather in video chat rooms, called Hangouts; and instantly upload photos and videos from their mobile phones to Google+. Google isn't trying to kill Facebook with this launch; it's wisely looking to provide an alternative to the massive info-sharing (and over-sharing) occurring on the world's leading social network today. To check it out, eWEEK received an early invitation to participate in the invitation-only field test. Before we fully battle-test it, please check out this walk-through of the service we received from taking an interactive video tour.