Google opened the gates to its social network, Google+, to everyone Thursday and rolled out more than a dozen new features to the service, many of them aimed at mobile phone users.
For 12 weeks, Google+ has been in “field trials,” Google Senior Vice President of Engineering Vic Gundotra explained in a company blog. “We’re nowhere near done,” he wrote, “but with the improvements we’ve made so far we’re ready to move from field trial to beta.” Now anyone can go to the Google+ site and sign up for the service.
In addition to open enrollment, Google introduced a number of improvements to the hangout feature of Google+. Hangouts allow people to chat face to face through video. With Thursday’s improvements, users of Android phones will be able to use hangouts on their mobile devices.
Google is also expanding the online version of hangouts. Now, through “Hangouts on Air,” you can open up a hangout session and as many as nine people can join it. An unlimited number can watch the hangout session.
by John P. Mello Jr., PCWorld Sep 21, 2011 12:58 pm
via www.macworld.com
