Starting today, September 21, 2011, Google+ social media network is open to the general public. Started in July Google+ was available just on an invitation basis and aquired 25 million users so far.
Also, starting yesterday, in an open competition with Google+, Facebook introduced more features related to news feeds, friends list and more.
You can access and signup for Google+ here:
https://plus.google.com/
You can find my Google+ profile at:
http://google.com/profiles/intercer .
Google+ lets you connect with your friends, group your friends in circles, post messages and articles, connect by video chat and more.
Google Hangout allows you to connect video with your friends. You can find Google apps for iPhone and Android.
Google+ grows every day, using their user’s suggestions and has a great potential to develop in the direct competition with Facebook.
Google+ Friend Circles
Google Plus allows you to group your friends in “Circles”. You can add persons who already have a Gmail account or you can invite persons with a non-Gmail account to sign up to Google+. If you sign up with a non-Gmail account, later on Google suggests you to create a Gmail account, to be able to receive the full benefits of its network.
When someone adds you as a friend on Google+ you will receive a web and/or email notification. In reply, you can add that person to one of your circles or you can leave that person in no circles. The other person will not know if you add it in your circles or not.
In Google+ settings you can find your Gmail contacts. Also you can open up your Yahoo and Hotmail contacts. Google suggests persons you may know, based on your contacts and your extended circle contacts. Every person shows in your contacts with a “business card” like icon.
You can add a person to one or more of your circles, by dragging that person’s business card to that specific circle.
You can create new circles and you can also reorder your circles.
When you post something on Google+ you can select whom you share that post with: one person, a circle, more circles or you can make your post Public.
Google+1 buttons (equivalent of Facebook Likes)
Similar to Facebook “Like” buttons, you can click the Google “+1” buttons, to show the fact that you like a website or a particular article..
When you click on the “+1” button you have to be logged in to your Gmail account. If you are not logged in, you will be prompter to login in a new window.
Then you can see a list of your “+1” likes in your Google profile, in the “+1’s” tab.
This way you can show your interest for your preferred websites and posts, helping these in a better search engine indexing and social integration.
My profile at Google+
You can find my profile at Google+ at: http://google.com/profiles/intercer .
On my Google+ profile, I post technical articles related to web hosting, web design, WordPress websites, marketing and affiliate programs and more.
Also, I post articles in both English and Romanian languages featuring Adventist news, articles and media.
For the moment Google accepts just individual profiles. Later on, they will allow organization and business profiles.
Good luck with your new Google+ social activity!
