+Everyone: Google+, ready to be trialled by users

Marina Freri
Wednesday, 21 September 2011 10:20

Your IT - Entertainment

Search giant Google is ready to lift the curtain on its 90-day-trialled social network, Google+, allowing all gmail and non-gmail users to subscribe, but limiting one of its most interesting applications to Android users only.

From the pages of its blog, Google today announced the trial was over and that nine new features were to be added to the 91 improvements, already made over the three-months trial.

Google senior vice president of engineering, Vic Gundotra, said Google+ was not perfect yet but ready to be trialled by public scrutiny. 'We're nowhere near done, but with the improvements we've made so far we're ready to move from field trial to beta, and introduce our 100th feature: open signups,' Gundotra said. 'This way anyone can visit google.com/+, join the project and connect with the people they care about'.

The +Hangouts mobile app - one of the new nine features disclosed today - promises to keep pace with how users socialise in real life. It enables users, who own an Android 2.3+ device with a front-facing camera, to share video with their contacts.

To access +Hangouts, users have to look for an active hangout in the Stream and tap 'Join' or simply start a new one. 'In life we connect with others in all sorts of places, at all different times,' Gundotra said. 'And the connections you make unexpectedly are often the ones you remember the most'.

Gundotra said Hangouts could be used for family reunions or to broadcast a message to a broader audience: in this case, the app 'Hangouts on Air' allows users to set up a public broadcast or to view it as a spectator. For the moment, Google will limit this feature to a selected number of broadcasters, but Gundotra maintained any Google+ user could tune in.

Also, Gundotra said the +Hangouts app would come with a series of new extras to enhance the real life experience: Screensharing, to share pictures and 'whatever is on your screen', Sketchpad and GoogleDocs to scribble or write together with friends, and Named Hangouts to either join or create a public hangout about a topic of choice.

'Spending time together goes hand in hand with actually doing things together,' he said. 'Dinner with family can easily turn into movie night at the local theater, for instance. And running into old friends can inspire anything from photo sharing to vacation planning'.

Gundotra added changes had also been made to the possibility of searching people and contacts on Google+. He concluded Google+ and the Hangouts extras were still under construction, but added the company was eager for users' feedback.

'The extras are still under construction, but we wanted to preview these features and get your feedback sooner versus late,' he said. '('¦)We're also releasing a basic set of Hangouts APIs. If you're a developer who wants to build new kinds of apps and games (and who-knows-what-else), then you can find more details on the Google+ platform blog'.