An Insight into Google +

Google+ is an extension of Google itself and is the latest attempt of the search giant. It is another social networking site which doesn’t seem to win over the rival Facebook users at the first blush. The social network is an amalgamation of different social products and features a video chat service (Hangouts), a group texting service (Huddle), a recommendation engine (Sparks), a friend management service (Circles) and a news feed (Stream).  Many new features are expected to be launched in the near future.

Google + can’t be considered as Google’s first shot for dominating the social space as You Tube and Orkut are its biggest successes in the social arena. The company has changed the iconic Google navigation bar for including a link to a user’s Google+ profile.

Facebook is a potential threat to Google’s domination of the Web and this was a wakeup call for Google. It’s an answer to Facebook which in return focused on completing new features to keep itself in the competition by adding features like Facebook Messages, Facebook Places and Facebook Groups.

Though Google + is embarrassingly similar to Facebook in many ways, it has some interesting features like “Hangouts,” “Circles” and many others. Facebook users can control their status messages and content, Google+ makes it much easier for users. The user need not confirm friend requests and can easily organize what content has to be shared with whom. This can be done by categorizing people by putting them in “Circles”. The same is applicable to sharing of information on “Stream”, Google+’s version of Facebook wall. Thus, Google secures the user’s information and give them full control over their shared information which underlines a sense of security among the users.

Speculations say that Google+ will soon have over 10 million users which will make it the strongest contender to Facebook and thus redefine the social media scenario.
These speculations have increased the importance of Google+ being used as a signal for top SEO rankings on Google. This importance has even changed the package of SEO Services provided by the top SEO companies.