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Sunday, July 3, 2011

What Is Google+? Introducing the New Evolution of Social Media


Big changes are coming to Google.

You may have noticed the many drastic changes to the Google interface over the past several weeks. First, there was the big striking black navigation bar on top of the screen. Then, the left sidebar menu changed its font, colour, size and iconography. This is followed by the integration of the "+1" button next to your search results, not to be mistaken with its evil counterpart: the "Block all results from this website" button. They even removed the popular RealTime Google search function, which previously retrieved live-time tweets from Twitter users. All these changes finally came together on June 28th 2011, when Google announced its launch of the Google+ platform.

What is Google+? The latest innovation from Google has been classified under many descriptions. It is most commonly hailed as the "new rival of Facebook" due to the prominent social media integration within the Google+ platform, where users can submit live-time news and share online content within their social communities. You are able to categorize online users into different communities, such as friends, family, business acquaintances, and other like-minded individuals, and communicate different kinds of information through these compartmentalized channels. Google+ places a heavy focus on creating, communicating, and sharing social content with online users – but not just with any ordinary Joe on the Internet; instead, Google connects you to a specialized community of users that has the same likes, interests, and online surfing habits as you do. In other words, imagine Google+ as a more intimate and customized level of social media.

With the launch of Google+, the biggest search engine in the world is about to get even bigger. This article will continue to explore the many changes that you can expect from this massive Google update, and how it might affect your online browsing experience.