Google+

About

Google+ (pronounced Google Plus and often written as "G+") is a social networking service created and operated by Google. It was in beta (and invitation-only) for much of July, 2011, but as of 2011-07-31 the home page and sign-in page showed no signs of any restriction. General public release was on or about July 31 with open access to all afterwards.

Features and Technology

Basic features of Google+ include:

• Circles in which users may organize others.
• User Profile page
• Stream
• +1 Button
• Photos
• Hangouts
• Communities
• Notifications
• Search

At its heart the service resembles a blogging or microblogging platform with a very limited (and buggy) Markdown format, in which posts may appear in other users' Streams.

Controversies

Google+ has been the source of a number of controversies over its existence, including:

• "Real Names" policy and "Nymwars".
• Gender disclosure.
• Government censorship, particularly in the People's Republic of China.
• YouTube Comments / G+ integration.
• "Two Factor Authentication" and phone-number registration.

Critiques

Numerous criticisms and analyses of Google+ have been made and could well be linked here including those by User:Woozle and/or User:Dredmorbius.

Pages

• /exodus: information kiosk for those who have left, or are planning to leave, G+ (voluntarily or otherwise)
• /management: the people who make decisions about G+ /policy
• /policy
  • /naming: the infamous "common name" policy, and the controversy regarding it
• /suspensions: list of users whose accounts have been suspended due to ostensible naming policy violations
• /users: small experimental database for tracking G+ users (including management)

External Links

Official

• service home page

Reference

• HTYP
• Wikipedia