After about three months long trial with a select few, Google+ networking tool is now open for hoi polloi. The company has added a
couple of new features as well. Actually, about 100 of new changes! Google+ trial saw quite a few changes in its short beta life of three years. Despite being invitation only, it stirred up quite a frenzy among the users and was soon touted as Facebook killer. Lately, its allure seemed to lost its luster, but it sure had some impact on Facebook, which now is belting out changes to its website, as if there is no tomorrow.
Back to Google+, the company chose to turn its 'project' into a 'beta product', just two days before the start of Facebook's F8 conference. Google in its blog said, "We’re nowhere near done, but with the improvements we’ve made so far, we’re ready to move from field trial to beta, and introduce our 100th feature: open sign-ups." Google is also introducing new changes in the form of open 'hangouts', which you can now remain and use to send your broadcast to up to nine different people. Hangouts will now also be available to iOS and Android devices. The service was initially available only to PC users.
Then there is yet another feature of computer screen sharing and you can do this while using Hangouts. For example, if you have just found out an awesome Nyan cat video on YouTube, you can watch it together with your Hangout buddies. Similarly, you can use this feature for sharing your vanity pictures, your supposedly spectacular planking feats and if you are so inclined, for sharing your work documents. Take our word, nobody is going to sue you if you use networking site for a little bit of 'work' on the side. Google will now also let the third party developers to create apps for supplementing Hangouts. So expect more fun in the near future.
Since Google is the ultimate authority when it comes to internet search, then how can a Google+ search feature be far behind! You can now just type your queries into the search box and it will spit out the results culled from posts and people in your network. It will also scour the web also, so do not worry about the quality of the results. Google is also recognizing the fact that the world is increasingly getting mobile. Now that it has made its 'Hangouts' available on the mobile handsets, it has also added the feature which will let you post updates on the go. So, now feel free to fill on your friends with the interesting minutiae of your awesome and exciting life! You can also post comments, respond to group messages and receive notifications via text messages.
Google+ has also extended its +1 feature to iOS devices. For the uninitiated, +1 feature is to Google+ what like button is to Facebook. The company said that it would be extending the feature to Android devices soon. It has also renamed 'Huddle' to more intuiteve 'Messenger'. Yet another new feature will let you click pictures with your mobile phone and share them instantly with your friends.
However, the big question still remains! Will Google+ be able to annihilate Facebook the way Facebook destroyed MySpace? Will both of them happily co-exist or is Google+ is a temporary phenomenon and will wither away once its novelty value wears off. Whatever the future holds, one thing is for the sure that Facebook is not going to take it lying down and is ready to fight a tough battle.