Google+

You have probably seen press coverage of Google+, articles such as "Google+ challenges Facebook in social network battle" (BBC News) and "Google's Facebook rival takes off" (Sydney Morning Herald). But it's difficult to try it yourself as it limited to invited beta testers, although it's expanding every day. It's up to 10 million members!

The first thing you notice is the seamless integration into your Google account. +(Your Name) appears in the top left of the toolbar in Google.com when you are signed in, just like Google Mail, Maps etc. The interface is similar to Facebook, but it's a lot easier to choose who you share information with. It encourages you to put you 'firends' or 'connections' into Circles. A word of caution, by default anyone can see you you are friends with and which circles they are in.

Google suggest Circles called: Friends, Family etc. but you can create any that you like. When you create a post you can share it with the world, any of all of your circles or any of your individual contacts. At the moment you can share and access Google+ through your web browser on a PC, Mac or smart phone. The iPhone has a great mobile site, formatted for touch screen use. Android users have access to a native app which integrates into the Android system like the Gmail app.

The similarity to Facebook continues with an equivalent service to the "like" button, on Google+ it's called "+1". One thing that is very different is the lack of third party apps, spam and advertising. But then it's only a trial at the moment!! It will be interesting to see if Google+ fully replaces the Google Buzz service which is sort of like twitter, it certainly becomes irrelevant when Google+ allows public posts. Google+ does try to share you location too, but you can customise the piracy settings in a similar way to Facebook.

Share your thoughts on Google+ by commenting below, and remember to "+1" this post!

For more information: http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/ or check out this video from Google+: