Google+ : What is Google Plus? Google Plus Benefits and Features

What is Google Plus?

Google+ or Google Plus is a social network of Google. Some of its tools and features come from existing services and platforms, such as the Picasa photo storage and sharing platform. Some features are similar to other popular social networks and micro-blogging platforms.

Google+ was opened to a small number of users to test in June 2011. Google then invited some of those early users to invite some of their contacts. The service has since been opened to all. It was given an overhaul in April 2012.

Google+ follows two less ambitious attempts by the company, Google Wave and Google Buzz. The service launched in beta on June 28, 2011, on an invitation-only basis. The first members were permitted to invite friends the next day but that permission was rescinded almost immediately because of what Google described as “insane demand” for new accounts. Once the service is out of beta, Google plans to increase the Google+ membership gradually.

Google Plus : Stopped ?

• Google is shutting down its Plus social network in April 2019, instead of August as originally planned, because of a new security bug.
• The most recent bug affected 52.5 million users and made private profile information available to third-party apps.
• Google says that it has no evidence that the data was accessed or misused, and that it didn’t include sensitive information like passwords or financial data. 

Key Benefits and Features of Google Plus :

• You can find Google+ at plus.google.com.
• To connect to Google+ you need a Google account (such as to access Gmail).
• The main page that appears when you join updates, conversations and a stream of shared content ‘- similar in many respects to the Facebook news feed or Twitter stream.
• When you add contacts to your Google+ account, you assign them to one or more ‘circles’, which is a way to categorize and organize people.
• When you first sign up, you will see some ‘circles’ that have already been set up by Google, including ‘Friends’ and ‘Familiar’. You can also add your own.
• You can share messages or links with everyone or only in designated circles. This gives you more flexibility than Twitter and is a similar concept to ‘groups’ on Facebook.

Features of Google Plus :

• Your circles are private – that is, no one can see how you have named your circles or which circles they are or have been placed to someone else.
• The ‘Notifications’ section will let you know when someone adds you to one of their circles (though which circle is not) and when someone has commented or responded to the content you shared or commented on.
• You can comment below content shared by other users, which you follow, and you can also ‘+1’ it.
• The latter is similar to ‘Like’ on Facebook.You can also share that content if the original poster allows it. This is similar to retweet on Twitter.
• If the original poster gives you permission, after you interact with a post, Google+ gives responses and informs you of any updates. If these start getting annoying, you can ‘mute’ these updates.
• The ‘Hangout’ application allows users to video chat.
• You can upload and organize photos using Google Photos (formerly called Picasa).
• Google+ app is available for smartphones.
• In late 2011 Google+ launched ‘Pages’, which allowed groups, organizations and companies to sign up.
• It is now possible to choose a personal Google Plus address.