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">{{cite news|url= http://money.cnn.com/2011/07/14/technology/google_q2_earnings/index.htm|title=Google+ grows to 10 million users |date=July 14, 2011 |accessdate=July 15, 2011|work=CNN}}</ref> After 4 weeks in operation, it had reached 25 million unique visitors.<ref>{{cite web|author=August 2, 2011 by Todd Wasserman 54 |url=http://mashable.com/2011/08/02/google-plus-25-million-visitors/ |title=Google+ Hits 25 Million Visitors; Users Are Spending More Time There [STUDY&#93; |publisher=Mashable.com |date=2011-08-02 |accessdate=2011-08-29}}</ref> Based on [[ComScore]], the biggest market was the US followed by India.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.ip6net.net/index.php/news|title=Google+ Draws 25 Million Visitors in a Month, ComScore Says |date=August 3, 2011}}</ref> And, after nearly 3 months of operation, it hit 50 million users, whereas it took other social networking sites more than 10 times the period.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://plus.google.com/105555694224602845621/posts?hl=en|title=Boom. Time to reach 50 million users. Google+'s is listed as 88 days, Marques Brownlee says |date=September 26, 2011}}</ref>
">{{cite news|url= http://money.cnn.com/2011/07/14/technology/google_q2_earnings/index.htm|title=Google+ grows to 10 million users |date=July 14, 2011 |accessdate=July 15, 2011|work=CNN}}</ref> After 4 weeks in operation, it had reached 25 million unique visitors.<ref>{{cite web|author=August 2, 2011 by Todd Wasserman 54 |url=http://mashable.com/2011/08/02/google-plus-25-million-visitors/ |title=Google+ Hits 25 Million Visitors; Users Are Spending More Time There [STUDY&#93; |publisher=Mashable.com |date=2011-08-02 |accessdate=2011-08-29}}</ref> Based on [[ComScore]], the biggest market was the US followed by India.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.ip6net.net/index.php/news|title=Google+ Draws 25 Million Visitors in a Month, ComScore Says |date=August 3, 2011}}</ref> And, after nearly 3 months of operation, it hit 50 million users, whereas it took other social networking sites more than 10 times the period.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://plus.google.com/105555694224602845621/posts?hl=en|title=Boom. Time to reach 50 million users. Google+'s is listed as 88 days, Marques Brownlee says |date=September 26, 2011}}</ref>


Despite experiencing incredible 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, which essentially comes down to the same thing: censoring.<ref>{{cite web|last=Wauters |first=Robin |url=http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/29/google-plus-china-blocked/|title=China Is Already Blocking Google +|publisher=TechCrunch |date=2011-06-29}}</ref>
Despite experiencing incredible 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.<ref>{{cite web|last=Wauters |first=Robin |url=http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/29/google-plus-china-blocked/|title=China Is Already Blocking Google +|publisher=TechCrunch |date=2011-06-29}}</ref>


In under a day, the Google+ iPhone app was the most popular free application in the Apple app store.<ref>{{cite web
In under a day, the Google+ iPhone app was the most popular free application in the Apple app store.<ref>{{cite web

Revision as of 16:17, 9 October 2011

"G+" redirects here. For the TV channel, see Plus (TV channel).
Google+
Google+ logo
Google+ homepage.
Google+ homepage
Type of site
Identity service / Social network
Available inOver 40
OwnerGoogle
URLplus.google.com
CommercialYes
RegistrationOpen to everyone ages 18+
(September 20, 2011)

Google+ (pronounced and sometimes written as Google Plus, sometimes abbreviated as G+) is a social networking and identity service,[1][2] operated by Google Inc.

The service launched on June 28, 2011 in an invite-only "field testing" phase.[3] The following day, existing users were allowed to invite friends who are over 18 years of age,[4] to the service to create their own accounts. This was suspended the next day due to an "insane demand" for accounts.[5] on the sixth of August, each Google+ member had 150 invites to give out,[6] but on September 20, 2011 Google+ was opened to everyone 18 years of age or older without the need for an invitation.[7] After Google+ went public, users registered to Google with an age under 18 were unable to sign up for Google+.[8] Google plans to open up Google+ to all users over the ages of 13 after proper safety features are added.[9]

Google+ integrates social services such as Google Profiles and Google Buzz, and introduces new services Circles, Hangouts and Sparks.[10] 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.[11] Sources such as The New York Times have declared it Google's biggest attempt to rival the social network Facebook,[12] which had over 750 million users in 2011.[13]

Google Apps mail accounts are the only ones that cannot be used for Google+, as Google Apps doesn't support Google Profiles yet.[14][15][16]

Growth

On July 14, 2011, Google announced that Google+ had reached 10 million users just two weeks after it was launched in a "limited" trial phase.[17] After 4 weeks in operation, it had reached 25 million unique visitors.[18] Based on ComScore, the biggest market was the US followed by India.[19] And, after nearly 3 months of operation, it hit 50 million users, whereas it took other social networking sites more than 10 times the period.[20]

Despite experiencing incredible 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.[21]

In under a day, the Google+ iPhone app was the most popular free application in the Apple app store.[22]

Early adopters of Google+ have been mostly male (71.24%). The dominant age bracket (35%) is 25-34.[23] On September 20, 2011, Google+ was made available to general public.[24]

A survey estimates 13% of U.S. adults have joined Google+ and is projected to have 22% of U.S. adults in a year.[25]

Features

A Google+ Stream
  • "Circles" enables users to organize contacts into groups for sharing,[26] 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.[27][28]
  • "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.[26] On August 18, 2011, Google added, a new addition to "Hangouts", by clicking on the Share button under any YouTube video to reveal an icon that suggests watching the video with friends in a Google+ hangout.[29]
    • 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 at 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.[30]
    • Hangouts with Extras, currently at a preview state, will allow users to share documents, share a scratchpad and share their screens with other users.[31]
  • "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.[26]
  • "Instant Upload" is specific to Android mobile devices; it stores photos or video in a private album for sharing later.[26]
  • "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.[26] Sparks helps to keep users posted on 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 photo 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.[32] Unlike Facebook games, Google+ games are located under a games tab which gives games less visibility,[33] with notifications that are separate from the rest of a user's notifications.[33]
  • Google+ has a "+1" button to allow people to recommend sites and parts of sites similar in use to Facebook's Like button.[34]
    • Google has recently announced that since introducing this +1 Button, it is now being served more than 5 billion times per day.[35]
  • 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+.[citation needed]
  • "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.[36]
  • ""New Features for Google+ Mobile"" Since the launch of Google+, Google has been adding and improving many features. On September 20, 2011, they released a list of changes and additions to Google+ mobile which include:[37]
    • 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.

Reception

Design impact

The introduction of Google Plus has an impact on the design of Google's web search service, due to the graphical redesign.[38][39] CNN noted the "combo-plate approach" of Google+, likening the new social effort to a "Taco-Bell-meets-KFC."[40] There have been refinements alongside speculation of a much wider impact once Google+ is fully rolled out,[41] including some redesign of Google Maps, Google Mail, and Google Calendar. In particular, there are changes to Picasa Web Albums, whereby all Picasa users images will automatically join their Google Plus image storage.[42]

  • 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.

Importing contacts from other social networks

Google+ includes a feature to invite contacts from Yahoo! and Hotmail.[43] At this time, however, there is no official way to import Facebook contacts into Google+; but there are some workarounds to achieve it.[44] 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.[45]

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.[46] This is part of a wider policy of censorship in Mainland China.[47] The Iranian government has also blocked access to Google+ from 11 July 2011,[48] as part of Internet censorship in Iran.[49]

Controversies

Joining the service requires mandatory real-name and gender disclosure, which at launch was shared as public information.[50] 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.[51] The mandatory public gender exposure led to criticism for making older Google profiles public.[52] In response, Google made changes to the service that allow users to control the privacy settings of their gender information.[53] 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.[54]

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. Since anyone can add others to their circle without getting confirmed/approved, anyone can potentially see others' +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.

Nymwars

Main article: Nymwars

Google has suspended accounts because Google believed they were not using their real name.[55][56] Google VP Bradley Horowitz claims that a violation of the terms of service will only affect the service whose terms were violated, not any of the other services that Google provides.[57] It is reported that in one case[58] this resulted in the account holder being temporarily locked out of all of Google services.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Excerpt from interview with Google CEO Eric Schmidt".
  2. ^ "Google Plus and Identity Services".
  3. ^ "Facebook's Newest Challenger: Google Plus". Retrieved 29 June 2011.
  4. ^ Google is newest addition to social network, retrieved 29 July 2011 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |pub= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ Shaer, Matthew (30 June 2011). "Looking for a Google+ invite? Either get comfortable - or get crafty". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  6. ^ "150 Google Plus Invites". Ghacks.net. 6 August 2011. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
  7. ^ "Google+ for Everyone". New York Times Blog.
  8. ^ https://www.google.com/support/plus/bin/answer.py?hl=en&p=underage&answer=1350409
  9. ^ https://groups.google.com/a/googleproductforums.com/forum/#!msg/google-plus-discuss/RTh_laUTRFo/JsMXHDWSkrAJ
  10. ^ "Official Google+ Website". Retrieved 30 June 2011.
  11. ^ "Google+ Platform". Google. 15 September 2011. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
  12. ^ "Another Try by Google to Take On Facebook". The New York Times. 28 June 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2011.
  13. ^ "Facebook Statistics". BBC News. 6 July 2011. Retrieved 6 July 2011.
  14. ^ "Google should launch Google Premier". Thenextweb.com. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
  15. ^ "Google+? Still a Minus for Google Apps Users - Blogcritics Sci/Tech". Blogcritics.org. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
  16. ^ "Google Apps and Google+ (aka WHEN WILL WE GET GOOGLE PROFILES??) - Google Apps Help". Google.com. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
  17. ^ "Google+ grows to 10 million users". CNN. 14 July 2011. Retrieved 15 July 2011.
  18. ^ August 2, 2011 by Todd Wasserman 54 (2 August 2011). "Google+ Hits 25 Million Visitors; Users Are Spending More Time There [STUDY]". Mashable.com. Retrieved 29 August 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  19. ^ "Google+ Draws 25 Million Visitors in a Month, ComScore Says". 3 August 2011.
  20. ^ "Boom. Time to reach 50 million users. Google+'s is listed as 88 days, Marques Brownlee says". 26 September 2011.
  21. ^ Wauters, Robin (29 June 2011). "China Is Already Blocking Google +". TechCrunch.
  22. ^ tsotsis, Alexia (4 January 2011). "Google+ Now The Top Free App In The Apple App Store". TechCrunch. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
  23. ^ Mitchell, Jon (1 August 2011). "Who Used Google Plus First? Male Geeks From the US [Infographic]". Readwriteweb.com. Retrieved 29 August 2011.
  24. ^ [1]
  25. ^ 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)
  26. ^ 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.
  27. ^ Google+ Update: Share Your Favorite Circles with Others on YouTube
  28. ^ ReadWriteWeb: Google Plus Users Can Now Share Their Circles
  29. ^ August 19, 2011, White, Charlie http://mashable.com/2011/08/18/watch-with-friends-youtube/
  30. ^ ZDNet: Google+ Hangouts go mobile, get live streaming and better search
  31. ^ ZDNet: As Google+ opens to everyone, Hangouts get boost to challenge more than Facebook
  32. ^ "Games in Google+: fun that fits your schedule". Official Google Blog. Retrieved 11 August 2011.
  33. ^ a b Google Plus: Google plus social games is awesome, done the right way!
  34. ^ "Google +1 Button". Google.com. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
  35. ^ Wauters \First=Robin (3 October 2011). TechCrunch http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/03/google-1-button-served-2-3-billion-times-a-day-or-is-it-5-billion/. Retrieved 4 October 2011. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  36. ^ "Search in Google+". Google.com. 20 September 2011. Retrieved 3 October 2011.
  37. ^ http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2011/09/google-101-102-103-104-105-106-107.html. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  38. ^ "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)
  39. ^ "Google+ post by Andy Hertzfeld". Plus.google.com. 27 May 2010. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
  40. ^ Stutter, John D. (13 July 2011). "Tech elite struggling to define Google+". CNN. Retrieved 14 July 2011.
  41. ^ Boulton, Clint (1 July 2011). "Google Redesign Backs Social Effort". eWeek Europe. Retrieved 1 July 2011.
  42. ^ Google Plus vs Facebook: invite gets Google+ 18 million users, retrieved 29 July 2011 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |pub= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help)
  43. ^ Nicholas Jackson. "Getting Around Google's Slight: Import Facebook Friends on Google+". The Atlantic.
  44. ^ Alan Henry,(June, 06.2011)"How to Import your Facebook friends to Google+"[2]
  45. ^ Declan McCullagh. "Google wields data openness against Facebook". CNET. "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."
  46. ^ Arthur, Charles (30 June 2011). "Google+ 'blocked in China'". guardian.co.uk. London. Retrieved 1 July 2011.
  47. ^ Arthur, Charles (30 June 2011), "Google+ 'blocked in China", The Guardian, London, retrieved 29 July 2011 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |pub= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help)
  48. ^ ""گوگل پلاس" در ایران فیلتر شد (persian)". Retrieved 12 July 2011.
  49. ^ Iran tightens online censorship to counter US 'shadow internet', retrieved 29 July 2011 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |pub= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help)
  50. ^ Chloe Albanesius. "Google Deleting Private Profiles by July 31". PC Magazine.
  51. ^ Philip Berne. "Gender's Role in Facebook and Google+". SlashGear.
  52. ^ Martin Brinkmann. "All Your Private Profiles Are Belong To Us". http://www.ghacks.net. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
  53. ^ Declan McCullagh. "Google+ will let users conceal gender". CNET News.
  54. ^ "Google+ post by Frances Haugen". Plus.google.com. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
  55. ^ "Google carries out account cull on Google+". Thinq.co.uk. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
  56. ^ "Google Plus Deleting Accounts En Masse: No Clear Answers | ZDNet". M.zdnet.com. 23 July 2011. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
  57. ^ July 25, 2011 (25 July 2011). "Google VP offers up fixes to Google+ name policy, debunks myths". VentureBeat. Retrieved 23 August 2011. {{cite web}}: Text "Devindra Hardawar" ignored (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  58. ^ GrrlScientist (25 July 2011). "Google's gormless 'no pseudonym' policy | GrrlScientist | Science | guardian.co.uk". London: Guardian. Retrieved 23 August 2011.

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