Google+, the colorful technology giants’ social network is now open to everyone. After being invite-only for nearly three months, yesterday Google+ moved from “field trial to beta, and introduce our 100th feature: open signups,” said Vic Gundotra, Google’s Senior Vice President of Engineering in the official company’s blog.
Photo: Google
It’s also written in the blog that about the 99 improvements have been made to the product since launching. It includes big improvements to Google+ Hangouts, a service that allows users to join together online in a group of up to ten friends and communicate. The improvements include the ability to use Hangouts on Android devices (version 2.3 and higher). And search, which is a hybrid of content shared on Google+ and results from around the web is also became available.
In addition, Hangouts On Air are now available. After starting ‘a normal hangout’, and you’ll have the option to broadcast and record your session. Up to nine others can join your hangout (as usual), and anyone can watch your live broadcast. Google will demonstrate how it works today hosting their very first On Air hangout with will.i.am. For more information visit will.i.am’s or Gundotras’s profile on Google+.
Other extras include screensharing with other users, the sketchpad for drawing or doodling together and Google Docs for common sharing. Search both on the web and in people’s profiles is also possible now, as Google has brought its search expertise to its social platform.
Google+ gained an extreme popularity when the service first launched in July and functioned only ‘on invitations’. The service attracted 20 million visitors in its first month, offering features that were not available on its biggest rival platform, Facebook. In comparison, Zuckerberg’s brainchild now has 750 million of users.
However, since then, Facebook has also launched a number of features that challenged Google’s offering. The leading social network improved Friend Lists and made changes to the News Feed, both of which equalize it with Google+, offering its Circles feature.
