Google+ - the social network of the moment. Well, it's been a great first few weeks. Originally launched on June 28, 2011 as invite only, then surpassing 10million users in the first two weeks, now at over 25million, where Comscore highlights Google+ has reached this level faster than any social network before it.
It seems the invite-only campaign has worked. The classic adoption strategy (as with Facebook, Hipster etc) has driven demand and adoption by key influencers in the tech-scene - my own wall is filled with posts fromTom Anderson, Jason Calcanis, Robert Scoble, Pete Cashmore (or Mashable I never really know which) to name a few. However it is worth remembering there are nearly 200m monthly gmail users - who have been one click away from trying Google+.
So... what does the product offer?
The features
On first glance any amateur social networker would feel at home with the news feed, chat function, friends lists and a status or publishing bar. Things seem pretty normal or standard, but where it gets interesting is the introduction of new services - Circles, Hangouts, Sparks, and Huddles.
Circles - these allow users to optimise their sharing preferences to ring-fence content they share on their profile to be seen by different groups. And despite how complicated this sounds, in reality its very simple. Good UI makes this process easy and is only limited by the user's imagination. A major improvement on Facebook groups this may turn into an Ace card in the social networking game as users can define infinity complex and unique social circle structures as they choose.
Hangouts - attempts to make video chat work for small groups of people (up to 10) via the Google Voice and Video plugin. A nice tool with features that help steer the conversation instead of it being a rambling mess, this won't be for everyone but those familiar with video chat tools such as Skype will enjoy exploring this feature. I'm not sure that the name of this feature really represents the technology though.
Sparks - this is Google+'s shot at the interest graph. And it's another great feature. Enter your interest in the search box and you are thrown a list of relevant 'things' that might be of interest, whether its a blog, video, news piece or website. You can then save your searches for easy access in the future. On each piece of content you can +1 or share on your Plus profile. I assume that you will see who in your circles have shared articles though I haven't seen evidence of this yet. I can see myself defaulting to sparks searches over tools like Google Reader for RSS content and beyond.
Huddles -is a group messaging app that works across Android, iPhone, and SMS allowing you to send messages to certain circles. Beyond the Google+ app this allows for mobile communications in pre-determined social groups which may become increasingly interesting for professional use as well as for fun. And not to forget on-top of these features Google+ integrates nicely with Google Profiles and Google Buzz, and Gmail.
The future?
Let's take a look at the current competition. Facebook, a place for your friends and family, where your network(s) consists bi-directional relationships (you have mutually accepted friending requests) plus any page you have 'liked' (brand, product, event, venue, band etc). Twitter is where you follow people you are interested in what they have to say. This is a asymmetrical relationship model with the real gem of the platform being the instantaneous nature of events - news breaks here before anywhere else. Finally LinkedIn, which is an increasingly social platform but is for one social circle only, your professional one.
So where does Google+ fit into this ecosystem? It seems it is looking to disrupt it completely by giving users the tools to make Google+ what they want, and craft how they consume the social output or sharing of others. They've built what seems a solid foundation for a social network. Circles will work like a sandbox of social networking - you can create what networks you like. Plus they have introduced new tools to facilitate networking, and accomplished integrating google services to aid the transition of Google fans worldwide.
Integration for brands will be interesting, but the focus now should be the user base. Get this right and brands will be itching to participate on Google+.
But before the champagne is opened, let's remember the critical mass lives on Facebook. Your parents are on there. You arrange your social lives there. You are marketed to there. With Google+ it seems that the search giant are hoping that building superior tools for networking will be enough to win the majority over re-defining the social web - Will this be enough? Or is there something else up their sleeve?
Come say hi on Google+
