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==Censorship==
==Censorship==
Within a day of the website's launch, various news agencies reported that Google+ was blocked by [[People's Republic of China]].<ref>{{Cite news |first= Charles |last= Arthur |work= [[guardian.co.uk]] |url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jun/30/google-plus-blocked-china |title=Google+ 'blocked in China'|date=June 30, 2011 |accessdate=July 1, 2011}}</ref> This part of a wider policy of [[censorship in the People's Republic of China|censorship in China]].
Within a day of the website's launch, various news agencies reported that Google+ was blocked by [[People's Republic of China]].<ref>{{Cite news |first= Charles |last= Arthur |work= [[guardian.co.uk]] |url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jun/30/google-plus-blocked-china |title=Google+ 'blocked in China'|date=June 30, 2011 |accessdate=July 1, 2011}}</ref> This part of a wider policy of [[censorship in the People's Republic of China|censorship in China]], however the majority of American's agree that censorship sucks and are happy to not be subjected to such frivolous censorship.
{{Expand section|date=July 2011}}
{{Expand section|date=July 2011}}


Revision as of 23:14, 6 July 2011

Google+
Google+ logo
Screenshot
File:Google+ homepage.png
Screenshot of the Google+ homepage as of June 28, 2011
Type of site
Social network
Available inOver 40
OwnerGoogle
URLplus.google.com
CommercialYes
RegistrationLimited (Until publicly launched)

Google+ is a social networking service operated by Google Inc. The service launched on June 28, 2011, in an invite-only testing phase.[1] The following day, existing users were allowed to invite friends, who are above 18 years of age, to the service to create their own accounts. However, this was quickly suspended in a day after there was "insane demand" for accounts.[2]

Google+ will be built as a layer that not only integrates different Google social services, such as Google Profiles and Google Buzz, but also introduces many new features including Circles, Hangouts, Sparks and Huddles.[3] Google+ will also be available as a desktop application and as an application on Android and iOS operating systems. It has been said[by whom?] that this is Google's biggest attempt to rival the social network Facebook[4], which had over three quarters of a billion users in 2011.[5]

Features

A Google+ Stream
A Google+ Hangout
  • "Circles" enables users to organize contacts into groups for sharing,[6] across various Google products and services. Although other users can view a list of people in a user's collection of circles, they cannot view the names of those circles. Organisation is done through a drag-and-drop interface. This system replaces the typical friends list function used by sites such as Facebook.
  • "Huddle" is a feature available to Android, iPhone, and SMS devices for communicating through instant messaging within circles.[6]
  • "Hangouts" are places used to facilitate group video chat (with a maximum of 10 people participating in a single Hangout at any point of time). However, anyone on the web could potentially join the 'Hangout' if they happen to possess the unique URL of the Hangout.[6]
  • "Instant Upload" is specific to Android mobile devices; it stores photos or video in a private album for sharing later.[6]
  • "Sparks" is a front-end to Google Search, enabling user to identify topics they might be interested in sharing with others; "featured interests" sparks are also available, based on topics others globally are finding interesting.[6]
  • Through "Streams", users see updates from those in their circles, updates similar to Facebook's news feed. The input box allows users to enter a status update or use icons to upload and share photo and videos.

Wider impact

The introduction of Google+ has had an impact on the design of Google's web search service, due to the graphical redesign (mistakenly attributed to Andy Hertzfeld).[7][8] There have been refinements alongside speculation of a much wider impact once Google+ is fully rolled-out,[9] including some redesign of Google Maps, Google Mail and Google Calendar. Initial consumer reaction to Google plus has been positive.[10]

In particular, there are changes to Picasa Web Albums:

  • After tagging someone, they receive a notification and can see the photo and the related album.
  • For new albums, anyone an album is shared with can see who else it is shared with.
  • Albums someone shared can be tagged and re-shared by others.
  • Photos up to 2048×2048 pixels and videos up to 15 minutes won’t count towards the 1 GB storage quota for Google+ users (it's 800×800 pixels for non-Google+ users), creating “virtually unlimited” storage for mobile users

Censorship

Within a day of the website's launch, various news agencies reported that Google+ was blocked by People's Republic of China.[11] This part of a wider policy of censorship in China, however the majority of American's agree that censorship sucks and are happy to not be subjected to such frivolous censorship.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Facebook's Newest Challenger: Google Plus". Retrieved 29 June 2011.
  2. ^ Shaer, Matthew (30 June 2011). "Looking for a Google+ invite? Either get comfortable - or get crafty". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  3. ^ "Official Google+ Website". Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  4. ^ "Another Try by Google to Take On Facebook". The New York Times. 28 June 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2011.
  5. ^ "Facebook Statistics". 6 July 2011. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  6. ^ a b c d e M.G. Siegler (28 June 2011). "Google+ Project: It's Social, It's Bold, It's Fun, And It Looks Good — Now For The Hard Part". TechCrunch. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  7. ^ "Inside Google+ — How the Search Giant Plans to Go Social". Retrieved 2 July 2011. {{cite web}}: Text "Epicenter" ignored (help); Text "Wired.com" ignored (help)
  8. ^ Google+ post by Andy Hertzfeld
  9. ^ Boulton, Clint (1 July 2011). "Google Redesign Backs Social Effort". eWeek Europe. Retrieved 1 July 2011.
  10. ^ http://www.christianpost.com/news/google-plus-online-poll-suggests-many-ready-to-embrace-google-51877/
  11. ^ Arthur, Charles (30 June 2011). "Google+ 'blocked in China'". guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 1 July 2011.


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