Google dominates the world of online search, but so far it has not been able to translate its success in that area into the social networking sphere. That market remains dominated by Facebook, which has around 750 million users worldwide. Google+ is actually Google's second attempt at social networking. In February 2010, it launched Buzz, which used Google accounts and let users post status updates to followers (the central feature of most online social networking sites).
However, Buzz was widely criticised for privacy flaws; its default settings initially meant that the most frequently contacted people in a Buzz user's Gmail account would be automatically displayed on the user's profile page. After an initial period of interest, a large percentage of users ignored it. Google needs Google+ to work better, and so far it seems to have achieved that goal.
Profiles, circles and hangouts
If you've used existing social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, the basic concept of Google+ — sharing updates and links — is easy to understand. Google+ uses your existing Google account, but requires you to create a Google Profile -- a public page with your name and (if you wish) a photo — which is visible to the public. While the profile isn't private, the main emphasis of Google+ is on letting you choose what information you wish to share with particular people, whether those are personal status updates, links to other sites or pictures .
Google does this through the concept of "circles", which are groups of contacts you have added to Google+. You might have circles for friends, colleagues, old schoolmates, members of your book group, and so on. (People can be members of more than one circle.) You can add contacts either from your Gmail address book, or by manually adding addresses.
Each time you post an update, you choose which circles you want to share it with. That means that rather than broadcasting everything to everyone -- one of the common criticisms of sites like Facebook and Twitter — you can share information only with those it seems appropriate to. You can also view incoming streams of updates based on membership in particular circles.
While Facebook actually has a similar feature, setting up the lists can be fiddly and many people don't notice that it's available. Circles are set up in Google+ using a drag and drop interface which is easy to understand.
Another key distinguishing feature of Google+ is Hangouts, a group video chat feature. While online video chat isn't new, Hangouts lets multiple participants chat at once. Once you open a chat, anyone signed in who has you in one of their circles can chat with you. (Hangouts relies on a browser plugin, which is available for Chrome, Firefox, IE and Safari.)
Other features in Google+ include Sparks (which shows links based on topic areas you're interested in) and integration of Google's photo service, Picasa (which is being rebranded as Google Photos). Whether Google+ can carve out a sustainable social networking niche remains to be seen, but based on its initial reception, it has a reasonable shot.
Signing up for Google+
At the time of launch, Google was restricting signup to Google+, and only allowing existing members to invite a limited number of friends to the service, but now it's open for anyone to sign up at http://plus.google.com. You'll need a Google account to sign up; if you've got a Gmail or YouTube account, you already have one.
Once you have signed up, Google Plus is accessible through your Google account, and includes notifications in the redesigned Google toolbar (the black strip across the top of the screen).
