Goggle+ the next big thing after Facebook???

The whole web is talking about Google+, the top-secret social project that Google has been working on for the past year, it is led by General Patton (Vic Gundotra) Google’s senior vice president of social.

This time, they were all working hard to do something better than Orkut and Wave. The idea was to create a product that would make a mark on the web. So Google+ is their answer to the social networking giants Facebook and Twitter. Will Google+ be able to give competition to existing social networking sites? Is this the next big thing? Only time will tell….Lets have an overview of Google+

Google+ is still in its testing phase and invitations are required to join. So, invitations are still scarce to come by. But when you are in, first thing you will notice is that you are automatically signed in a secure server(https). This may be done considering the recent controversies over Facebook taking liberties with users’ privacy. Other add on advantage with Google+ is the sleekness of it UI, its seems clean and easy to use.

Key Features of Google+ Project are:

1. Google+ Circles

Google+ Circles are very much similar to our real life circles, a circle of our college friends,  another of colleagues, a circle for our parents and relatives so on and so forth. It facilitates sharing of information among these circles while ensuring privacy. The things that you share with your college friends might not be the exact things you’d like to share with your family and colleagues. Google lets you create different circles and makes it easier to share content among the members of that circle.  Creating circles are far more easy then creating friend list in Facebook or a Twitter list, the drag and drop functionality with a nice animation is a welcome addition.

2. Google+ Hangouts

Google+ Hangouts is the next best and one of the more innovative concept. You can join a group conference with up to 10 people from your circles and have fun sharing your thoughts or just chilling out. Ohh…then how it is different from group video chat,  well the feature which makes it far better is its Camera Switching Feature means it changes who’s on the camera based on who’s talking.

3. Google+ Sparks

Google+ Sparks is a new way to engage in conversation with people.  You just need to add a topic of your interest and Google will search the Internet and deliver a stream of content directly related to the topics of your interest. Even more interesting thing is that the content will be delivered in over 40 languages. This is a great feature but it seems it will end up being the most underrated feature.

4. Google+ Huddle

Google+ Huddle is basically a group messaging service for the circles you create which lets everyone know what’s going on instantaneously. This is not that great feature but it is good to text all friends at the same time.

5. Google+ Instant Uploads

Google+ Instant Uploads is a photo sharing feature very much similar to Facebook photo sharing. But the difference is it comes with a photo editor and instant uploading from your phone. With instant uploads,  you photos and videos upload automatically to a private album on Google+ and you just need to decide who to share them with.

6. Google+ Stream

Last but not the least, Google+ Stream is the place where users will see what their friends shared. This feature  is very much similar to Facebook’s News Feed. This is THE most important feature or we can say the backbone of any social networking platform.

These are all the major features of Google+. As Google+ is still in the testing phase a debate is going on in the web community, whether it is better then Facebook or later is better. If you want to read some comparisons between Google+ and Facebook see article on Tommy.ismy.Name or on MyWindowsClub .

Or go to you tube for an Introductory Video

Lets wait and watch what more Google+ offers in coming times….