It was only a matter of time before the worlds biggest internet based company, Google, entered the Social Media domain.
While many other social networks have come and gone without much fanfare, all eyes were on Google to see exactly what they were going to do and even more importantly, would it succeed.
So what have they come up with? Instead of creating a separate social network for people to interact, Google have instead opted to build a number of separate social media add on's to enrich user searching experiences. They of course, interconnect with each other.
The Current list of Google social media products are:
- Circles
- Stream
- The Google+ bar
- Photos
- Hangouts
- Chat
- Sparks
- Profiles
- +1's
First up, Circles essentially breaks up contacts into different groups. Such as family, work colleagues, sports teams etc. It allows you share and post information and specifiy who you are sharing it with.
Hangouts allow you interact with a number of friends at the same time, with video chat, text etc.
Sparks tailors and targets information that you choose by setting parameters. Say for example, you are interested in Tennis. Sparks will collate tennis related information on one page for you. Over time, more relevant information will be added to Sparks.
Similar to the roll out of Gmail a few years back, Google+ is being rolled out on a phased basis using invites. Keep an eye on Google +.
