Ever since the outburst of social networking in 2006, Facebook continues to dominate the global market. After a long wait, the globally renowned search engine Google, has decided to enter this potentially large market with Google+, a new social media site with much more to offer.
Google is used world wide and has the strongest algorithm to fetch results. It’s the fastest SE of all the search engines in the market. Google has been dominating the market from a very long time. Now, Google has decided to spread its wings in the social media market also. It is going to launch a new social media site called Google+. Currently, this social networking site is in the testing phase and was launched on 28 June 2011 for a small group of people to test its usability. On June 29, 2011 the existing users were allowed to send invitations to friends for creating their own account, but that was closed the same day due to the large demand for new accounts on this buzzing site.
With the advent of various companies providing software development services, the social market has become very much competitive. Every now and then these offshore software development companies want to go for their brand promotion using social media sites. Google has tried to combine all its social services at one place in the Google+, such as Google profiles etc. Some new terms have been introduced in Google+, such as Circles, Hangouts, Huddles and Sparks. These are basically the features of this site which makes it different from its rival Facebook. Google is also going to launch this as Desktop as well as mobile application for different operating systems such as Android and iOS operating systems by following mobile application development activities. By doing so, Google has tried to attract as many customers as possible, by providing them with the ease of accessibility and connectivity.
Google+ Features :
- Circles: This is a rather an old thing with a new name, it enables users to manage contacts as per their choice. One can add any number of circles to one’s profile and add people to these named circles such as family, friends, best friends, etc. by drag and drop interface. A user can share anything with the circles, such as Google services, videos, snaps or some important information.
- Huddle: It is a feature that is available to Android, iPhone and other devices to interact with the people added in different circles.
- Hangouts: If one wants to chat with a group of friends or family members or say colleagues, then he can do the same through this amazing feature called group video chat, wherein all the group members (maximum 10 are allowed!) can interact with each other at a single hangout point. "Instant Upload" is specific feature for Android for storing photos or videos in a personal album for sharing or safe keeping.
- Sparks: Like the "Share" option on Facebook, Google’s development team introduced "Sparks", where users can find and share topics that they find interesting. It will recommend you what you like so you never get bored.
- Streams: This feature is similar to "notifications" on Facebook; thus users can see updates of people in various circles. There a user can add status update, image or video.
Google has tried its best to organize everything as per the user’s requirements. The rest now depends on the users worldwide and their taste. But it is quite certain that Google is going to capture the market in a similar manner it has been doing since the past decade.