I just thought I would take a little time to talk about Google+ or G+ as a lot of people are referring to it now. G+ is Google's new social network to rival Facebook. When it first came out I wasn't sure if I liked it and how simple it was but as I dove in more and more I was able to find that G+ has many useful features that Facebook lacks.
First of all it's different in the fact that if you have someone in your circle (instead of friends you have circles) you are following those people and you may or may not be in the other person's circle. Similar to following people on Twitter, circles are independent of everyone else's profile so if you or the other person chooses they can be removed with out anyone ever knowing. It's also a simple way to conveniently separate people into their proper social groups aka Family, Friends, Acquaintances, and people who you're just following.
Next up in G+'s line of features is drag and drop sharing of pictures and videos and soon files as well. I find it way more time consuming to upload pictures to Facebook, on G+ I just type my comment drag and drop my pictures or videos and click share, choosing who I want to share it with (everyone, extended circles, specific circles, or only certain people.). Personal messages can be done privately via the main page by simply choosing only that person to share a comment with, thus resolving the dreaded personal message wall posts Facebook is plagued with.
Now my all time favorite feature offered by G+ is the Hangout. When you "Hangout" on G+ you enter into a multi-person video chat which you can have up to ten people in, simultaneously, all with their own webcams and microphones! In addition to that you are able to have text and watch YouTube videos together even videos that have a live feed! To hangout you simply click the green "Start a Hangout" button on the right side of the screen and choose who you want to invite (just like sharing things, you can choose everyone, extended circles, specific circles, or only certain people.). Once you do this it will post an invitation that shows who is in the hangout and it will show up on everyone's feed who was invited. You can also add people by sharing the url that the hangout has which is unique to that specific hangout.
In Addition to the actual website that G+ has, there is also an Android application which has an auto-upload feature for pictures and videos you take with your Android device. It has many other features which I won't be covering in my review of G+. The app can be found at the link at the beginning of this review.
I hope you enjoyed my small overview of Google+ and what it is. I hope to see you on Google+ soon!
Here are some useful links to help you get started with your Google+ experience:
