Google goes social with Google+

The social sphere got more interesting recently with the introduction of Google+, Google's foray into social networking.

What is Google+?

Simply put, Google+ is a social network. And in many ways it closely resembles the de facto king of social networking, Facebook. However, it has enough tricks up its sleeve to make it a worthy competitor.

The Basics

To understand what Google+ offers, you need to understand its basic features:

Profile - Your profile is the representation of yourself on the service. While your profile contains personal information, it is fairly minimal compared to Facebook's profile as it avoids extensive lists of favorite movies, books, music, television programs and the like.

Circles - Circles serve as groups of contacts and sit at the forefront of the Google+ experience. They are meant to organize your contacts by the way you relate to them. You can have circles for family members, personal contacts, coworkers, acquaintances, etc. These circles enable you to selectively share content.

Stream - The Stream aggregates those things that your contacts have shared. It works almost exactly like Facebook's News Feed. You can comment on or "+1" any post.

"+1s" - The "+1" is the Google+ equivalent of a "Like." It indicates that you found whatever content was shared to be interesting. You can "+1" a contact's posts, media and external websites either from Google search results pages or from the website directly if that website implements a "+1" button.

Hangouts - Hangouts are spontaneous group video chat sessions. You can start a hangout and "invite" contacts to join by selecting them from any of your circles. Hangouts are announced in your contacts' streams.

Photos - Photos are straightforward and closely resemble Facebook's implementation. They can be grouped into albums and shared with appropriate circles. Additionally, photos taken from mobile devices with the Google+ app can be instantly uploaded so they are ready to be shared almost immediately after being taken.

Sparks - Sparks aggregate content from around the web that pertains to a subject in which you have indicated interest. They are meant to make relevant content discovery fast and social.

Huddles - Huddles are group chat sessions between users of the mobile Google+ app. A huddle is a convenient alternative to a hangout for mass communication on the go.

How Do I Get In?

At the time of writing, Google+ is in beta and the only way to gain access is to receive an invitation from an existing Google+ user. Once it is available to the rest of us mere mortals, it will act as an extension of your existing Google account.