Google+ goes public with 9 new features

Google has opened Google+ up to the public with a raft of new features, including video hangouts, shared TV shows, and live collaborative document editing, as the internet giant gets serious about social media.

The move follows a 90-day invitation-only field trial. The announcement comes just ahead of Facebook's f8 Conference, and represents Google’s biggest push yet to topple the social media market leader.

There are few details about the number of people who currently use Google+, although ComScore said there were 25 million users a month joining the limited field trial. Leading social network Facebook, by way of contrast, has around 750 million users.

In a blog post, Google engineering vice president Vic Gundotra said: "For the past 12 weeks we've been in field trial, and during that time we've listened and learned a great deal.

"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 sign-ups. This way anyone can visit google.com/+, join the project and connect with the people they care about."

Video Hangouts and Shared Sketchpads

Google has added support for its multiperson video chat service, Hangouts, to Android 2.3+ phones via a new mobile app in the Android Market. The company promises to update its iOS Google+ app soon.

Google has also upgraded its Hangouts service to allow more viewers than before. The company calls the enhancement "Hangouts On Air." While Hangouts still limit video chat participants to 10, others can view the video via the host's Posts stream.

Hangouts are also getting a handful of enhancements like screen sharing, a sketchpad, Google Docs viewing, and the ability to name Hangouts. In addition, Google is offering Hangouts APIs to allow developers to create applications that interact with Hangouts. Last week, the company introduced a general set of Google+ APIs.

"Sometimes you want to speak to a large audience, or alternatively, view as a spectator. In these cases, a public broadcast is what's needed, so today we're introducing Hangouts On Air," Gundotra wrote. "The setup is simple enough: just start a normal Hangout, and you'll have the option to broadcast and record your session. Once you're 'On Air', up to nine others can join your Hangout (as usual), and anyone can watch your live broadcast."

While any Google+ user can tune into Hangouts On Air, the company is starting with a limited set of broadcasters. The first On Air session will take place on Wednesday night, featuring Black Eyed Peas musician Will.i.am, who is also Intel's director of creative innovation.

Google Docs Integration

Google also launched a preview of Hangouts with Extras, which provides more features for the videoconferencing service. These include screen-sharing, a collaborative sketchpad and integrated Google Docs group-editing functionality.

When hosting a hangout, users can create a new doc on the fly and start sharing it with everybody. Alternatively, they can click the + symbol at the top of the sidebar to access existing documents. Users may need to authorise others in the hangout to view and edit, but that only takes a few clicks.

Video Channels

Frequency is a free video discovery platform with over 1,000 channels of programming. Our users follow their favorite topics, channels, and videos posted to their Facebook and Twitter networks in one continuous, personalised stream.

Automated Search

Google has also updated the search feature within the site. Previously you could search Google+ using the Google search box, but you had to append the
command "site:plus.google.com" to your keyword(s). Now you can enter search keywords through the input box at the top of Google+ pages. That input box used to be restricted to finding other Google+ profiles. Better still, search URLs can be shared.

Google has integrated its Sparks feature, which allows searches to be saved and used to identify relevant new content, into its Google+ search results. Sparks now represent one of four categories by which Google+ searches can be filtered. The others are: Everything, People, and Google+ posts. New saved searches--Sparks by any other name--can be created using the "save this search" button.

"If you're into photography, for example, then you'll see other enthusiasts and lots of great pictures," Gundotra wrote. "If you care more about cooking, then you'll see other chefs and food from around the globe. In all cases, Google+ search results include items that only you can see, so family updates are just as easy to find as international news."

Mobile hangouts

The Google+ app can now be moved to the SD card on Android devices, so as to clear space on a phone's internal memory, Soni said. Mobile users of the social network can now edit their profile picture and customise which notifications they receive.

However, the big mobile announcement is the added ability to conduct Hangouts from phones with forward-facing cameras.

API for developers

The launch of the public beta came shortly after Google released on Friday the first Google+ API, which allows developers to build apps that can automatically read data posted publicly on the service.

Further APIs should stimulate a variety of third-party Google+ apps — beyond the games that already exist — and the company made a developer preview of the Hangouts API available on Tuesday.

The Hangouts API lets developers build web apps that can be used in the Google+ video-chat sessions.

"Your app behaves like a normal web app, plus it can take part in the real-time conversation with new APIs, like synchronisation," Richard Dunn, the technical lead on Google+ platform for Hangouts, explained in another blog post.

However, there is still no word on when Google will allow businesses to set up their own pages on the social network, as they can on Facebook. The service is also not usable with Google Apps accounts, as those accounts do not yet support Google Profiles.