Google+ The New Jan/San Online Hangout?

posted on 7/26/2011

By Nick Bragg, Deputy Editor of Sanitary Maintenance

So you’re already on Facebook, you tweet on Twitter and you connect with your peers on LinkedIn and myCleanLink. What more can you ask for? Well, Google, the search engine giant, thinks you need more when it comes to the social media landscape. The company recently released its own social media site, Google+.

Google+ is similar to Facebook in that it allows its users to add profile pictures and connect with friends and contacts, but it also connects with Google’s search engine and Gmail. Like Facebook, Google+ has a central home page that displays a stream of the comments, photos and links being shared by friends and contacts. Different than Facebook, however, is the fact that a user’s friends or contacts are grouped in ‘Circles’ rather than having a large pool of friends like on Facebook.

Circles allow users to organize their social life the way they want to. And, each time a user posts on Google+ they can specify which Circles can see the content. So, Circles makes it easy for anyone to put friends in one circle, family in another, co-workers in another and customers in another.

Google+ isn’t yet ready for businesses to join, however. Google says it is planning to introduce Google+ for businesses before the end of the year, allowing companies and brands to create profiles on the site.

Despite it being in a “limited launch” stage, Google+ has already amassed over 1 million users in its first two weeks, including yours truly — and so far I like what I see. With new updates coming down the pike, including a special video feature where up to 10 people can be on the same video conference call, I’m excited for what Google has in store. My guess is that Google+ will soon be running ‘Circles’ around the other social media sites.