Google Plus Open to the Public!

As of yesterday, Google Plus was released for the public. No more asking for invites from your few lucky friends. The official age for G+ is now 13 instead of 18, since it is no longer a test run.

Google Plus

I like several things about Google Plus, first being Hangouts:

Hangouts Allow You to chat with friends, or celebrities, requiring a YouCam and a microphone. Up to 10 people can participate in a hangout, making a regular computer screen too small to see all video's at once, so Google came up with the idea of shuffling the videos based on who is talking, or who is the loudest.

Google Plus Hangouts

Second, is circles. This is just like your contacts on Facebook, or any other social network. It will suggest friends for you (mainly from your email contacts). You can invite your friends, so that you can connect with more people.

Your Circles

Another nice thing about Google Plus is its Chat box. It loads your Google Talk contacts and lets you chat with them from Google Plus, which saves you from having to change windows all the time.(Multitasking)

Convenient Chat Box

Over a period of time, Google Plus will add more and more games to its inventory. Among some of the first games are, Angry Birds, CityVille, Zynga Poker, and more.

Google+ Games

Google has come out with a great product for phones called Huddle, which allows you to group text, with up to 50 people.

Google Huddle for Phone

Notifications: On Google Plus you only receive notifications for posts that you have commented on, or that you posted. If you are in any sort of Google page, the notifications show in the top right corner with the number of notifications surrounded in red. The Share button is located right next to it allowing you to share anything without going into Google Plus.

G+ Notification and Share Bar

Last but not least, the Google Plus stream for your circles is neat easy to use. It shows only posts from people you have added in your circles, It allows you to comment, +1, re-share, and access the profile of the person who posted.

Google Plus Timeline

All in all, Google's newest tool, Google Plus is very straightforward, and easy to use, meanwhile it satisfies the needs of the more sophisticated class of Technological Nerds such as me. I would give Google's newest product Four Stars out of Five.