Google+ (or Google Plus) is a social networking and identity service that is owned and operated by Google Inc. Google has described Google+ as a "social layer" that enhances many of its online properties, and that it is not simply a social networking website, but also an authorship tool that associates web-content directly with its owner/author.
In October 2013, Google counted 540 million active users who used at least one Google+ service, of which 300 million users it deemed active. A 2013 survey found that 30% of surveyed smartphone users used the Google Plus app at least once a month.
Creation
Google launched the Google+ service as an invitation-only "field test" on June 28, 2011,] but soon suspended early invites due to an "insane demand" for new accounts.On August 6, each Google+ member had 150 invitations to give out until September 20, 2011, when Google+ opened to everyone 18 years of age or older without the need for an invitation. It was opened for a younger age group (13 years or older in US and most countries, 14 or older in South Korea and Spain, 16 or older in the Netherlands) on January 26, 2012. Google+ is available as a website and on mobile devices.
Before the launch, Google referred to Google+ as Google Circles, a name alluding to its emphasis on organizing friendship information. Google+ is considered the company's fourth foray into social networking, following Google Buzz (launched 2010, retired in 2011), Google Friend Connect (launched 2008, retired by March 1, 2012) and Orkut(launched in 2004, as of 2013 operated entirely by subsidiary Google Brazil - retired in September 2014[).
Growth
| Date | Time since launch | Number of users |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 29, 2013 | 2 years | 540 million |
| Sep 18, 2012 | 1 year | 400 million |
| Dec 21, 2011 | 6 months | 150 million |
| Jul 22, 2011 | 24 days | 25 million |
During its private beta, Google+ grew to 10 million users after its first two weeks. In a month, it reached 25 million. In October 2011, the service reached 40 million users, according to Larry Page. Based on ComScore, the largest market was the United States followed by India. After nearly three months of operation, it reached 50 million users, whereas other social networking sites such as MySpace took 1,046 days to reach that level; Twitter1,096 days; Facebook 1,325 days; and LinkedIn 2,354 days . By the end of the year Google+ had 90 million users. According to Experian Hitwise, an Internet metrics firm, the number of U.S. visits to Google+ surpassed 49 million during the one-month period ending December 11, 2011, a 55% increase from the one-month period ending November 11, 2011.
According to independent analysis of its growth in December 2011, the site was adding an estimated number of 625,000 new users a day, which may total 400 million members by the end of 2012. Reported in February 28, 2012, while Facebook users average 7.5 hours on the site per month, Google+ users are spending roughly 3.3 minutes monthly on Google+. As of May 2013 Google+ users are spending roughly 7 minutes on the social site. These numbers do not include traffic via apps.
User base
In late 2013, there were 540 million monthly active users across Google Properties and 300 Million active in the Google + Stream. Google+ user base is roughly 60% male and 25% female as of November 2013. The remainder are "Other" or unknown. Early adopters of Google+ in mid-2011 were mostly male (71.24%), and the dominant age bracket (35%) was between 25 and 34. An August 2011 survey estimated that 13% of U.S. adults have joined Google+; it was projected to have 22% of U.S. adults in a year.
On January 26, 2012, teenagers were finally able to create a Google+ account. The age limit had previously been 18, but in response to widespread and unprecedented demand on the part of American teenagers to be permitted to create a Google+ account, Google's Vice President for Product Management Bradley Horowitz eventually relented and announced on Google+ that users as young as 13 would be allowed to join the popular social networking medium.
Social Media Statistics
- Facebook now has over 1.15 billion users
- Twitter now has over 550 million registered users and 215 million monthly active users
- Google+ now has over 1 billion enabled accounts and 359 million active monthly users
- YouTube has over one billion monthly active users
User profile
A Google+ User profile is a public visible account of a user that is attached to many Google properties. It includes basic social networking elements like a profile photo, about section, background photo, previous work and school history, interests, places lived and an area to post status updates.[48] It also includes several identity service sections, such as a contributor and other profiles area that let one link their "properties across the web". These section optionally link to other social media accounts one has, any blogs one owns or have written or sites one is a contributor to. This area is used for Google Authorship.Customized or Vanity URLs were made available to the public starting on October 29, 2013 to any account that is 30+ days old and has a profile photo and at least 10 followers. Google removed author photos from search results in June 2014 and in August 2014 Google has stopped showing authorship in search results, both photo and author name.
Circles
Circles is a core feature of the Google+ Social Platform. It enable users to organize people into groups or lists for sharing across various Google products and services. Organization of circles is done through a drag-and-drop interface. Once a circle is created, a Google+ user can share specific private content to only that circle. For example, work themed content can be shared with only work colleagues, and one's friends and family could see more personal content and photos. The option to share Public or with Everyone is always available. 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.
Another function of Circles is to control the content of one's Stream. A user may click on a Circle on the left side of the page and the Stream portion of the page (the center) will contain only posts shared by users in that Circle. For the unsegmented Stream (includes content from all of a user's Circles), each Circle has a "slider" configuration item with four positions: nothing, some things, most things, and everything. The nothing position requires the user to select (click on) the Circle name explicitly to see content from users in that Circle. The everything setting as its name implies filters nothing out from people in that Circle. The remaining two positions control the quantity of posts which appear in one's main Stream, but the algorithm controlling what shows has not been disclosed.
Google staff preparing in the 
Hangouts and Hangouts On Air
Hangouts are free video conferencing calls with up to 10 people, done through the Google+ website or mobile app. Many apps can be used inside the hangout, allowing users to share documents, a scratchpad, or their screens with other users, as well as many built-in apps such as YouTube, Google Docs, and the new Capture. Third-party apps built using the Hangout API are also available.
- Mobile Hangouts has supported Android 2.3+ devices with front-facing cameras since September 20, 2011. As of July 10, 2012 Google+ users on iOS are able to use Hangouts on iPhone and iPad.
- 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 on September 20, 2011, is limited to some videocast personalities, but the announcement indicates that it will be opened up. The first publicly broadcast Hangout was with The Black Eyed Peas’ will.i.am on the night of September 21, 2011. The feature became available at a large scale on May 7, 2012. The feature is not available to users under age 18 or from China, Thailand, or Vietnam.
+1 Button
Google+ has a "+1 button" to allow people to recommend sites and parts of sites, similar in use to Facebook's Like button.
Google+ Pages
Google+ Pages was launched on November 7, 2011 to all users, which allows businesses to connect with fans. It allows entities which are not individuals (such as organizations, companies, and publications) to set up profiles, or "pages", for the posting and syndication of posts. It is similar to Facebook Pages.
Google+ Badges was quietly rolled out to select enterprises beginning November 9, 2011 and officially released to the public on November 16. Badges are sidebar widgets which embed "Add to Circles" buttons and drop-down lists into off-site websites and blogs, similar to Facebook's Like Box widgets. This was officially treated by Google as a replacement for the older Google Friend Connect and its widgets, and GFC was announced by Senior Vice President of Operations Urs Hölzle on November 23, 2011, as scheduled to be retired by March 12, 2012 on all non-Bloggersites in favor of Google+ Page Badges.
Google+ Views was introduced on April 1, 2014. It features a "view counter", which is displayed on every user’s profile page. The view counter shows the number of times the user's content has been seen by others, including photos, posts, and profile page.
Communities
Google+ Communities: Released December 6, 2012, Google+ Communities allow users to create ongoing conversations about particular topics.Google+ Communities can also be created and managed under Google+ Page accounts.
Censorship by governments
Within a day of the website's launch, various news agencies reported that Google+ was blocked by the People's Republic of China. This is part of a wider policy of censorship in mainland China. The Iranian government has also blocked access to Google+ from July 11, 2011, as part of Internet censorship in Iran. Despite experiencing high growth in the U.S and European markets, Google+ still remains unavailable in mainland China. While it is not technically "blocked", it was made impossible to use by slowing it down to a crawl.
"Occupy Obama's G+"
On February 20, 2012, Internet users from the People's Republic of China realized that state restrictions on Google+ had been relaxed for unknown reasons, allowing them to post on Google+ pages. In particular, Chinese users began to inundate the official election campaign pages of U.S. president Barack Obama on Google+ with often off-topic comments in simplified Chinese characters.
The "occupation" of Obama's G+ page is largely considered a temporary mistake in Chinese censorship by observers outside China as Google reduced its physical presence in mainland China.
Commenting on YouTube
On November 6, 2013, YouTube began requiring that commenting on its videos be done via a Google+ account. YouTube said that their new commenting system featured improved tools for moderation, and comments would no longer be shown chronologically, but would be featured according to "relevance" and popularity, determined by the commenters' community engagement, reputation, and up-votes for a particular comment. A small portion of channels that used email addresses of older channels without Google account integration, remained without the new comment system, though some older features are now broken.
The decision to require a Google+ account to comment on YouTube videos led some users to criticize the change. Some YouTube commenters and content creators complained that the Google+ requirement that users use their real name created online privacy and security concerns. Others said the change made the comment system overly complex, and required users to set up an account on a social media platform for which they had no other use. An online petition to revert the change garnered over 100,000 signatures in less than a week and another 100,000 a week later. YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim voiced his disapproval of the change in one of few recent comments] and added "I can't comment here anymore, since I don't want a google+ account." to the description of the first ever video on the site. Commenters on YouTube pasted text art tanks and stick figures called "Bob" to protest the new commenting system and Google+. Supporters of the changes said it was a positive step at cleaning up the "virtual cesspool" of homophobic, racist, sexist and offensive comments found on YouTube.
Google Plus is Google's new social network. But why start a Google Plus account when you already have a Facebook account? Well, Facebook was developed on the premise that everyone is your "friend" which isn't how your social circles work in real life. Google plus is built so that you can intuitively break up all your connections into "circles" and treat each circle separately. (Facebook allows you to do some of the same things but the privacy settings are confusing and constantly changing.)
Google Plus has a lot of slick features, but the biggest reason to open a Google Plus account is that if you use a lot of Google products you will inevitably get one some day.
So get on Google+ now if you haven't already as it's one of the most powerful social media platforms around, however big or small your business is.
source: Wikipedia, Youtube
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