Introduction
- Google+ is a social network owned and operated by Google Inc.
- It is the second-largest social networking site in the world after Facebook. It has 540 Million active users in a month.
- On September 20, 2011, Google+ opened to everyone 18 years of age or older without the need for an invitation. It was opened for a younger age group (13 years or older in US and most countries, 14 or older in South Korea and Spain, 16 or older in the Netherlands) on January 26, 2012.
- Google+ grew to 10 million users after its first two weeks. In a month, it reached 25 million.
- After nearly three months of operation, it reached 50 million users, whereas other social networking sites such as MySpace took 1,046 days to reach that level.
- The number of U.S. visits to Google+ surpassed 49 million during the one-month period ending December 11, 2011
- As of May 2013 Google+ users are spending roughly 7 minutes on the social site.
- On January 26, 2012, teenagers were finally able to create a Google+ account. The age limit had previously been 18, but Google's Vice President for Product Management Bradley Horowitz eventually relented and announced on Google+ that users as young as 13 would be allowed to join the popular social networking medium.
Website
- Circles is a core feature of the Google+ Social Platform. Organization of circles is done through a drag-and-drop interface. Once a circle is created, a Google+ user can share specific private content to only that circle.For example, work themed content can be shared with only work colleagues, and one's friends and family could see more personal content and photos.
- n the "Stream", which occupies the middle of three columns on the page, users see updates from those in their Circles. There is an input box which allows users to enter a post.
- Hangouts are free video conferencing calls with up to 10 people, done through the Google+ website or mobile app.
- Google+ has a "+1 button" to allow people to recommend sites and parts of sites, similar in use to Facebook's Like button.
- Google+ Pages was launched on November 7, 2011 to all users, which allows businesses to connect with fans.
- Google+ Badges was quietly rolled out to select enterprises beginning November 9, 2011 and officially released to the public on November 16. Badges are sidebar widgets which embed "Add to Circles" buttons and drop-down lists into off-site websites and blogs, similar to Facebook's Like Box widgets.
Controversies
- new users are asked for real-name and gender disclosure, which at launch was shared as public information. The gender selector has options for "Male", "Female", and "Other".he mandatory public gender exposure led to criticism for making older Google profiles public. In response, Google made changes to the service that allows users to control the privacy settings of their gender information.
