Google+ is a social network and social layer for Google services that is owned and operated by Google Inc. Google+ launched in June 2011 as a social network. Features included the ability to post photos and status updates to the stream or interest based communities, group different types of relationships (rather than simply "friends") into Circles, a multi-person instant messaging, text and video chat called Hangouts, events, location tagging, and the ability to edit and upload photos to private cloud-based albums. Approximately 540 million monthly active users make use of the social layer by interacting with Google+'s enhanced properties and 300 million monthly active users participate in the social network, interacting with the Google+ social networking stream.
The average time that user spent on the site was a small fraction of that on comparable social media services although the number of active users on Google+ grew significantly between 2011 and 2012. After that, Google+ growth stats are difficult to evaluate because Google first defined the service as a social network, then later as "a social layer across all of Google's services", allowing them to share a user's identity and interests. It is worth noting that The Google+ iPhone app became the most popular free application in the Apple App Store in July 2011.
Google+ is a typical Google web application: it uses Java Servest for the server code and JavaScript for the browser-side of the UI, largely built with Google's Closure framework, including the JavaScript compiler and the template system. They use the HTML5 History API to maintain good-looking URLs in modern browsers despite the AJAX app. To achieve fast response times Google often renders the Closure templates on the server side before any JavaScript is loaded; then the JavaScript finds the right DOM nodes, hooks up event handlers, etc. The back ends are built mostly on top of BigTable and Colossus/GFS, and other common Google technologies.
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 to all users. It allows entities that 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 are sidebar widgets that embed “Add to Circles” buttons and drop-down lists into off-site websites and blogs, similar to Facebook's Like Box widgets.
Google+ Communities can also be created and managed under Google+ Page accounts.
Google+ Events allows users to add events, invite people, and then share photos and media in real-time from the event. The program is integrated with Google Calendar, and is posed as a direct competitor to similar features offered by Facebook.
It is a stream showing what Google+ users have commented, shared and interacted with the most. It is similar to "Trending Topics" On Twitter.
Huddle is a feature available to Android, iPhone, and SMS devices for communicating through instant messaging within Circles. Additionally, users can share photos in Messenger between their Circles.
Approximately 540 million monthly active users make use of the social layer by interacting with Google+'s enhanced properties. However, user engagement has been relatively low, averaging around 7 minutes per user per month. However, user engagement did not keep pace. ComScore estimated that users averaged just 3.3 minutes on the site in January 2012, versus 7.5 hours for Facebook. The New York Times described Google+ as a ghost town, citing Google stats of 540 million "monthly active users", but noting that almost half don't visit the site. The company replied that the significance of Google+ was less as a Facebook competitor than as a means of gathering and connecting user information from Google's various services.
Google+ uses a diaspora -like way of sharing content with users by utilizing circles. In fact, this format is very appealing to many users who are working to balance their professional and personal life. Moreover, Google+ makes it much easier to target content to your individual circles. It can be tricky because the proper circles must be added for each message. Facebook is often critiqued for their dubious privacy changes, and Google seems to be catering to those unhappy users with easy to use privacy options in one location. Besides, deleting an account is straightforward, so is deleting social features. This may appeal to some disgruntled Facebookers, drawing them to use Google+.
Google+ ‘Huddle’ is a non-SMS group chat application for mobile phones. This competes directly with other downloadable apps like Beluga,TextPlus, Kik, and GroupMe. There has not been any run away app in this space, but a Google product like Huddles should help boost it to the forefront.
3. About Gmail Notification
It is also worth noting that Notifications can be some of the most annoying and confusing elements of social sites, but if people are using Google+ and Gmail, it won’t be. Profile pictures are seamlessly tied in and you almost feel you are on a website instead of in your inbox.
Google+ looks great in comparison to previous Google products. Google+ is very slick and has a ton of visual eye candy inside. Images look awesome when posted. The black ‘Google One Bar’ is very appealing, and some of the JavaScript elements are jaw dropping.
As soon as you log-in, you can tell that some brilliant people created this site. However, the UI is too complicated for the average social user. There are too many options and different features for someone who is trying to simply post up information. This is something that Facebook and Twitter excel at – making hard things simple. To make a post a user must find connections to add to circles, add suggestions and friends to circles, and update content to specific people by choosing circles (which can include ‘your circles,’ or ‘extended circles’). Actually, there are just a lot of options for people and it will take a good deal of getting used to for the non tech-savvy user.
2. About designed product Name & element Name
The name Google+ is not great. The naming convention inside the service isn’t much better either. Instead of a ‘like’, users give a post a +1. The number of +1’s is listed with each post in the form of +#. The users feel confused sometimes. Other element names are also confusing. Google talk is shown under the chat on the left navigation, but ‘hangouts’ aren’t near the chat section of the navigation – and ‘huddles’ is nowhere to be found on the web.
