Google Plus is Now Open!

Just a few days ago, I wrote a blog post explaining why I was no longer an active user with Google Plus.  Maybe my thoughts will change now that Google Plus is open to the world wide web.  Now that Google Plus has been open to invite only for the last few months since its released, they have finally released it to the general public for anyone to sign up.  Google Plus (Google+) is no longer in its Beta stage.

This morning, Google decided to pull the plug on having it as beta and make it open.  Here is what they have to say…

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,” Google Senior Vice President of Engineering Vic Gundotra wrote in a blog post. “This way anyone can visit Google.com/+, join the project, and connect with the people they care about.

Google has also rolled out with some updates in a feature called Hangouts.  Hangouts is basically videoconferencing through Google+.  You can have up to 10 people in one hangout and they can all be on video/audio as well as text.  The Hangout feature was only available if you were physically on a computer and it wasn’t available through a mobile platform.  Google plans on releasing some type of app so you can do Hangouts over an Android mobile operating system as well as Apple’s iOS devices.  These applications will only work if your device has a front facing camera.

That’s not the only big update with Google+’s Hangout feature.  If you are a “big” user of Google+, you may be able to use the Hangout feature as a broadcast medium.  In theory, this would be an awesome idea but Google hasn’t confirmed this possibility.  If this is true, you will still be limited to 10 people per broadcast, but who knows where this will lead Google.

Another cool thing with the Hangout feature is they are giving us the ability to share our computer screens while we are in a Hangout session.  Previously, we were able to watch YouTube videos together but with this new roll out, we can do even more.  We can show off some vacation photos, plan trips, collaborate on documents and even scribble together on the new Sketchpad feature.  Personally, this sounds awesome but people will eventually learn how to use this against people as a security threat.

With other cool features being rolled out with Google Plus, we all have the same question, what’s next?

Are you glad that Google Plus is finally open to the public?  Are you excited to test out all the new features with the Hangouts?  Will you be signing up for Google+ if you haven’t already?  Leave your thoughts in the comment section.

[via TechJohnson]