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Google+
Google+ logo
Google+ homepage
Google+ homepage
Type of site
Social network / Identity service
Available inOver 40
OwnerGoogle
URLplus.google.com
CommercialYes
RegistrationOpen to everyone 18 or older with a Google account
(as of September 20, 2011)

you are all an idiot




Google+ integrates social services such as Google Profiles and Google Buzz, and introduces new services identified as Circles, Hangouts and Sparks.[1] Google+ is available as a web site, and will be available as a desktop application,[citation needed] and is already available as a mobile application, but only on the Android and iOS operating systems. Google has launched an API platform for developers.[2] Sources such as The New York Times have declared it Google's biggest attempt to rival the social network Facebook,[3] which had over 800 million users in 2011.[4]

At the initial launch, Google Apps accounts could not be used on Google+ due to lack of support for Google Profiles.[5][6][7] On October 27, Google announced that Google+ now supports Google Apps users (if the user's domain administrator has enabled the service).[8]

Google+ is considered the company's fourth foray into social networking, following Google Buzz (launched 2010, to be retired by 2012), Google Friend Connect (launched 2008, to be retired by March 2012) and orkut (launched in 2004, now operated entirely by subsidiary Google Brazil).

Growth

On July josh guest will die. 14, 2011, Google announced that Google+ had reached 10 million users just two weeks after the launch of a "limited" trial phase.[9] After four weeks in operation, it had reached 25 million unique visitors.[10] Based on ComScore, the biggest market was the US followed by India.[11] In October 2011, the service reached 40 million users, according to Larry Page.[12]

Despite experiencing high growth in the U.S and European markets, Google+ still remains unavailable in mainland China. While it is not technically "blocked" it was just made impossible to use by slowing it down to a crawl.[13]

In under a day, the Google+ iPhone app became the most popular free application in the Apple app store.[14]

Early adopters of Google+ have been mostly male (71.24%). The dominant age bracket (35%) is between 25 and 34.[15] On September 20, 2011, Google+ was made available to general public.[16]

A survey estimates 13% of U.S. adults have joined Google+; it is projected to have 22% of U.S. adults in a year.[17]

On November 7, 2011, Google launched, Google+ Pages, it will let businesses connect with fans in a manner similar to Facebook Pages. These businesses will receive corporate accounts to start sharing information about themselves and invite others to join in on the conversation.[18]

Features

File:Google+ Stream.png
An example of the Google+ stream.
  • "Circles" enables users to organize contacts into groups for sharing[19] 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. The privacy settings also allow users to hide the users in their circles as well as who have them in their circle. Organization is done through a drag-and-drop interface. This system replaces the typical friends list function used by sites such as Facebook. Since September 26, 2011 users can share circles; it's a one-time share, so if the creator of the circle updates the members, people's shared copies won't be updated.[20][21]
  • "Hangouts" are places used to facilitate group video chat (with a maximum of 10 people participating in a single Hangout at any point in time). However, anyone on the web could potentially join the "Hangout" if they happen to possess the unique URL of the Hangout.[19] On August 18, 2011 Google added a new addition to "Hangouts" - clicking on the Share button under any YouTube video reveals an icon that suggests watching the video with friends in a Google+ hangout.[22]
    • Mobile Hangouts currently supports Android 2.3+ devices with front-facing cameras (and iOS support is coming soon) are available since September 20, 2011.
    • Hangouts On-Air gives users the ability to create instant webcasts over Google+. The broadcasts can also be recorded for later retrieval. This feature, announced on September 20, 2011, is at the moment limited to some videocast personalities, but the announcement indicates that it will be opened up. The first publicly broadcasted Hangout was with The Black Eyed Peas’ will.i.am on the night of September 21, 2011.[23]
    • Hangouts with Extras, currently in a preview state, will allow users to share documents, share a scratchpad and share their screens with other users.[24]
  • "Messenger" (formerly: Huddle) is a feature available to Android, iPhone, and SMS devices for communicating through instant messaging within circles. Additionally, you can now share photos in Messenger between your circles.[19]
  • "Instant Upload" is specific to Android mobile devices; it stores photos or videos in a private album for sharing later.[19]
  • "Sparks" is a front-end to Google Search, enabling users 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.[19] Sparks helps to keep users informed of the latest updates on the topics of their interest.
  • In the "Stream," users see updates from those in their circles. The input box allows users to enter a status update or use icons to upload and share photos and videos. The Stream can be filtered to show only posts from specific Circles.
  • "Games" (Social Gaming) had 16 games when launched on August 11, 2011[25] (now 26). Unlike Facebook games, Google+ games are located under a games tab which gives games less visibility,[26] with notifications that are separate from the rest of a user's notifications.[26]
  • Google+ has a "+1 button" to allow people to recommend sites and parts of sites, similar in use to Facebook's Like button.[27]
    • Google recently announced that since introducing this +1 button, it is now being served more than 5 billion times per day.[28]
  • Similar to other Google applications, Google+ provides integration with other Google applications like Gmail, Calendar, Documents, etc.[citation needed]
  • A "Data Liberation" option provides the ability to download one's content from Google+.[29]
  • "Search in Google+" allows users to search for content within Google+. Users type what they're looking for into the Google+ search box, and Google will return relevant people and posts, as well as popular content from around the web.[30]
  • Hashtags, which involve the appending a number sign to the beginning of a word or CamelCase, are hyperlinked to the most recent or highest-trending search results within Google+ containing the word, CamelCase term or the sequential normal-case lettering of the multiple words. This, a feature which gained notoriety as a microblogging practice on Twitter, was implemented as a Google+ feature on October 12, 2011.
  • "New Features for Google+ Mobile" Since the launch of Google+, Google has been adding and improving many features. On September 30, 2011, the company released a list of changes and additions to Google+ mobile which include:[31]
    • Improved SMS support so that users in the US and India can now post to Google+, receive notifications, and respond to group messages via SMS. They have also made it easier to +mention someone from a mobile device. Now, to +mention another user, simply +[their name] inside a post or comment. In order to +1 comments more easily, users are now able to +1 it directly from your iOS device. They will introduce this features to Android soon.
    • Users are now able to edit their profile photos from a mobile device.
    • Google has now made it simple to organize Google+ notifications from a mobile device. This feature allows users to select which notifications are important to them and which are not so that their mobile devices are not inundated with superfluous notifications.
  • "What's hot" stream, introduced on October 27, 2011 is a stream showing what Google+ users are currently excited about.[32]
  • Ripples, introduced on October 27, 2011 is a visualisation tool, showing how resharing activity happens regarding a public post. One can replay the public share's activity, zoom in on certain events, identify top contributors, view statistics about average chain length, the most influential people in the chain, the language of the sharers etc.[32]
  • Google+ Creative Kit is an online photo editor integrated to Google+ on October 27, 2011,[32] which is essentially Picnik, integrated earlier to Picasa Web Albums.
  • Google+ Pages was launched on November 7, 2011 to all users.[33] It allows for organizations and publications to set up profiles, or "pages", for the posting and syndication of posts relating to organizations; it is similar to Facebook's similarly-named feature. At the same time, they changed the site's logo and favicon, from black to a red one, matching the colour of the coral notification icon.[34]
    • Google+ Badges was quietly rolled out to select enterprises beginning 9 November, 2011 and officially released to the public on 16 November[35]. 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. This was officially treated by Google as a replacement for the older Google Friend Connect and its widgets, and GFC was announced by Senior Vice President of Operations Urs Hölzle on 23 November 2011, as scheduled to be retired by 12 March 2012 on all non-Blogger sites in favor of Google+ Page Badges[36].

Technologies

According to Joseph Smarr, technical lead on the Google+ team (former Plaxo CTO) Google+ is a typical Google web application: it uses Java servlets for the server code and JavaScript for the browser-side of the UI, largely built with Google's Closure framework, including the JavaScript compiler and the template system. They use the HTML5 History API to maintain good looking URLs in modern browsers despite it being an AJAX app. To achieve fast response times Google often renders the Closure templates on the server-side to render it before any JavaScript is loaded; then the JavaScript finds the right DOM nodes, hooks up event handlers etc. The backends are built mostly on top of BigTable and Colossus/GFS, and other common Google technologies such as MapReduce.[37]

Reception

Design impact

The introduction of Google Plus had an impact on the design of Google's web search service, due to the graphical redesign.[38][39][40] CNN noted the "combo-plate approach" of Google+, likening the new social effort to a "Taco-Bell-meets-KFC."[41] As it was explained later, Google+'s fresh look is actually part of a broader effort to refresh the visual design across Google, to achieve a consistent experience in all products across the Google spectrum.[42][43]

In particular, there have been changes to Picasa Web Albums, whereby all Picasa users images will automatically join their Google Plus image storage.[44] Google also plans to rebrand Picasa as Google Photos.[45] Other changes:

  • 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 is 800×800 pixels for non-Google+ users), creating "virtually unlimited" storage for mobile users.

Google Maps got the redesign on June 28, 2011.[46] A redesigned Gmail and Calendar interface was first available at July 1, 2011.[47][48] The Google News redesign went live on July 21, 2011[49] and Google Docs got a new look on August 5, 2011.[50]

The new Google Reader interface was available on October 31, 2011. Beside the sweeping visual changes, former social features ("share" and "like" buttons) has been replaced by a Google +1 button and the "share on Google+" box. It's said that now Reader is on its fourth social model, after using Google Talk contacts, allowing people to manage friends from the Reader interface and then integrating with Google Buzz.[51][52]

Importing contacts from other social networks

Google+ includes a feature to invite contacts from Yahoo! and Hotmail.[53] At this time, however, there is no official way to import Facebook contacts into Google+; but there are some workarounds to achieve it.[54] Facebook allows users to download their data, but not in a simple format easy to import; network effects make it difficult for a new social network such as Google+ to be successful, and an easy tool to migrate to a rival service would reduce the effect.[55]

Censorship by some governments

Within a day of the website's launch, various news agencies reported that Google+ was blocked by the People's Republic of China.[56] This is part of a wider policy of censorship in Mainland China.[57] The Iranian government has also blocked access to Google+ from 11 July 2011,[58] as part of Internet censorship in Iran.[59]

Controversies

Joining the service requires mandatory real-name and gender disclosure, which at launch was shared as public information.[60] The gender selector has options for "Male", "Female", and "Other". This requirement was criticized by the weblog SlashGear for causing lack of privacy and, together with Facebook and other social networks, for forcing the user to choose among limited categories that describe preconceived gender descriptors.[61] The mandatory public gender exposure led to criticism for making older Google profiles public.[62] In response, Google made changes to the service that allow users to control the privacy settings of their gender information.[63] Google's justification for requiring gender information is that it uses that information to inform its usage of the terms "he," "she," and "they" in their delivery of information to users of the service. If a user decides to make the gender portion of the profile private, the language used to convey information becomes gender-neutral, using the singular they in place of gender-specific pronouns.[64]

Google+ allows its users to +1 and recommend items across the web to their friends and contacts. However, it offers no control on who sees people's +1s (includes +1s on Google ads and third party sites). Since anyone can add others to their circle without getting confirmed/approved, anyone can potentially see other's +1s . Google displays +1 to a user based on his/her social connections. If a person adds another to their circle, he/she will be added to their social connection. However, Google allows its users to either hide or show +1 tab on their profile and all +1's are manageable from the +1 tab.

Nymwars

Main article: Nymwars

Google+ requires some users to identify themselves using their real names and accounts may be suspended when this requirement is not met.[65][66] Google VP Bradley Horowitz has stated that a violation of the terms of service will only affect the service whose terms were violated and not any of the other services that Google provides.[67] However, there are reports of account holders being temporarily locked out of all of Google services.[68]

On October 19, at the Web 2.0 Summit, Google executive Vic Gundotra revealed that Google+ will begin supporting pseudonyms and other types of identity within a few months.[69]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Official Google+ Website". Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  2. ^ "Google+ Platform". Google. 15 September 2011. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
  3. ^ "Another Try by Google To Take on Facebook". The New York Times. 28 June 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2011.
  4. ^ "Facebook Statistics". BBC News. 6 July 2011. Retrieved 6 July 2011.
  5. ^ "Google Should Launch Google Premier". The Next Web. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
  6. ^ "Google+? Still a Minus for Google Apps Users - Blogcritics Sci/Tech". Blogcritics.org. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
  7. ^ "Google Apps and Google+ (aka When Will We Get Google Profiles??) – Google Apps Help". Google. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
  8. ^ "Google+ is now available with Google Apps". Google. Retrieved 27 October 2011.
  9. ^ "Google+ Grows to 10 Million Users". CNN. 14 July 2011. Retrieved 15 July 2011.
  10. ^ Wasserman, Todd (2 August 2011). "Google+ Hits 25 Million Visitors; Users Are Spending More Time There [STUDY]". Mashable. Retrieved 29 August 2011.
  11. ^ "Google+ Draws 25 Million Visitors in a Month, ComScore Says". 3 August 2011.
  12. ^ Larry Page's Google earnings remarks
  13. ^ Wauters, Robin (29 June 2011). "China Is Already Blocking Google +". TechCrunch.
  14. ^ Tsotsis, Alexia (4 January 2011). "Google+ Now The Top Free App in the Apple App Store". TechCrunch. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
  15. ^ Mitchell, Jon (1 August 2011). "Who Used Google Plus First? Male Geeks from the US [Infographic]". ReadWriteWeb (blog). Retrieved 29 August 2011. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  16. ^ [1]
  17. ^ 12:24 AM ET (5 August 2011). "Google+ May Pass Twitter Among U.S. Adults Online". Bloomberg. Retrieved 29 August 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  18. ^ November 7, 2011, Khan, Azam, http://socialtimes.com/google-launches-business-pages_b83409
  19. ^ a b c d e Siegler, M.G. (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.
  20. ^ Google+ Update: Share Your Favorite Circles with Others on YouTube
  21. ^ "Google Plus Users Can Now Share Their Circles". ReadWriteWeb (blog).
  22. ^ White, Charlie (19 August 2011). [2]. Mashable.
  23. ^ Weinberger, Matt (20 September 2011). "Google+ Hangouts Go Mobile, Get Live Streaming and Better Search". Googling Google (blog of ZDNet). Retrieved 12 October 2011.
  24. ^ Diaz, Sam (20 September 2011). "As Google+ Opens to Everyone, Hangouts Get Boost To Challenge More Than Facebook. Googling Google (blog of ZDNet). Retrieved 12 October 2011.
  25. ^ "Games in Google+: Fun That Fits Your Schedule". Official Google Blog. Retrieved 11 August 2011.
  26. ^ a b Google Plus: Google plus social games is awesome, done the right way!
  27. ^ "Google +1 Button". Google. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
  28. ^ Wauters, Robin (3 October 2011). "Google: +1 Button Served 5 Billion Times A Day". TechCrunch. Retrieved 4 October 2011.
  29. ^ "The Data Liberation Front Delivers Google Takeout", Google Data Liberation Front, 28 June 2011
  30. ^ "Search in Google+". Google. 20 September 2011. Retrieved 3 October 2011.
  31. ^ [3]. Google.
  32. ^ a b c Official Google Blog: Google+: Popular posts, eye-catching analytics, photo fun and...
  33. ^ http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/google-pages-connect-with-all-things.html
  34. ^ TechWhack: Google Plus has a new logo and favicon
  35. ^ Todd Volkert (Wednesday, November 9, 2011 at 11:50 AM). "Google+ badges: Drive Engagement with Your Users on Google+, Right from Your Own Website". Google+ Platform Blog. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  36. ^ Urs Hölzle (11/22/2011 01:40:00 PM). "More spring cleaning out of season". Google. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  37. ^ Joseph Smarr (2011). "I'm a technical lead on the Google+ team. Ask me anything". Retrieved 17 August 2011.
  38. ^ "Inside Google+ — How the Search Giant Plans to Go Social". Wired News. Retrieved 2 July 2011.
  39. ^ "Google+ post by Andy Hertzfeld". Plus.google.com. 27 May 2010. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
  40. ^ Inside Search: Some updates to the design of search
  41. ^ Stutter, John D. (13 July 2011). "Tech elite Struggling To Define Google+". CNN. Retrieved 14 July 2011.
  42. ^ TheNextWeb: Andy Hertzfeld on Google+, UI design and how Bob Dylan influenced the Mac
  43. ^ Official Google Blog: Evolving the Google design and experience
  44. ^ "Google Plus vs Facebook: Invite Gets Google+ 18 Million Users". timeswireservice.com. Retrieved 29 July 2011.
  45. ^ CNet: Google is planning to rebrand two of its most popular services, Mashable is reporting.
  46. ^ Google Lat Long Blog: A Refocused Map
  47. ^ Official Gmail Blog: A preview of Gmail’s new look
  48. ^ eWeek.com: Gmail, Google Calendar Join Google Redesign Party
  49. ^ Google News Blog: A Few Google News Design Changes
  50. ^ TheNextWeb: Google Docs gets a brand new look. Here’s how to try it now.
  51. ^ Google Operating System: Google Reader's New Interface
  52. ^ persistent.info: Google Reader Social Retrospective
  53. ^ Jackson, Nicholas (30 June 2011). "Getting Around Google's Slight: Import Facebook Friends on Google+". The Atlantic. Retrieved 12 October 2011.
  54. ^ Henry, Alan (6 June 2011). "How To Import Your Facebook Friends to Google+". Lifehacker (blog).
  55. ^ McCullagh, Declan (15 July 2011). "Google Wields Data Openness Against Facebook". Privacy Inc (blog of CNET). Retrieved 12 October 2011. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help) "Facebook does allow users to download much of their data, but not instantly and not in a format that can be easily imported to rival services. It's 'not in an open portable format at all,' says Fitzpatrick, the Google manager."
  56. ^ Arthur, Charles (30 June 2011). "Google+ 'Blocked in China'". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 July 2011.
  57. ^ Arthur, Charles (30 June 2011). "Google+ 'Blocked in China'". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
  58. ^ ""گوگل پلاس" در ایران فیلتر شد (persian)". Retrieved 12 July 2011.
  59. ^ "Iran Tightens Online Censorship To Counter US 'Shadow Internet'". iranian.com. Retrieved 29 July 2011.
  60. ^ Albanesius, Chloe. "Google Deleting Private Profiles by July 31". PC Magazine.
  61. ^ Berne, Philip (29 June 2011). "Gender's Role in Facebook and Google+". SlashGear. Retrieved 12 October 2011.
  62. ^ Brinkmann, Martin (6 July 2011). "All Your Private Profiles Are Belong To Us". ghacks.net. Retrieved 12 October 2011.
  63. ^ McCullagh, Declan (13 July 2011). "Google+ Will Let Users Conceal Gender". Privacy Inc. (blog of CNET News). Retrieved 12 October 2011. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  64. ^ "Google+ post by Frances Haugen". Plus.google.com. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
  65. ^ "Google Carries Out Account Cull on Google+". Thinq.co.uk. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
  66. ^ Blue, Violet (23 July 2011). "Google Plus Deleting Accounts En Masse: No Clear Answers". Pulp Tech (blog of ZDNet). Retrieved 12 October 2011. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  67. ^ Hardawar, Devindra (25 July 2011). "Google VP Offers Up Fixes to Google+ Name Policy, Debunks Myths". VentureBeat (blog). Retrieved 23 August 2011.
  68. ^ GrrlScientist (25 July 2011). "Google's Gormless 'No Pseudonym' Policy". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
  69. ^ "Victory! Google Surrenders in the Nymwars", Eva Galperin and Jillian C. York, Electronic Frontier Foundation, 19 October 2011
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