Google Plus, finally available to the public. This is supposedly Google’s breakthrough social network, but will it live up to expectations?

The first interesting feature of Plus is the “Circles” feature.These are groups in which you put your fellow “Plussers” (let’s call them). As one could probably guess, the typical circles to have are: Friends, Family and Co-workers. You can create as many circles as you wish, each limited to ten people, and people can be in more than one circle. Also, Plussers do not know what circles they are in, so you could put them in a circle called “People I Hate”, without them knowing. You can name the circles you create whatever you want.

Google Plus has a fairly basic news feed, showing all the people in your circle’s posts, but it does in fact also show the most popular posts in the world of Plus. That normal chatting system is nothing special until you reach the “Hangout” section. This is a truly innovative idea, and is a much better attempt at video chatting than Facebook’s. You can hangout with up to ten people, so in theory people could have small work conferences on Plus. You have to download the plug-in, but it is completely worth it.

Your profile in Google Plus is something that you will spend hours tweaking for perfection. You can write abundant amounts about yourself. Google gives you the opportunity to write these things on the “About” section: an introduction, bragging rights, employment, education, places, lives, how to be contacted at home and work, relationship status, what you are looking for on Plus, your other names and your nickname. Photos are also exceedingly easy to upload. You just have to drag them from your files to your browser. Videos are also fairly easy to upload.

Another great idea from Plus is the ‘+1’ button. If you see this button by something on the Internet and click it, it will pop up on your Plus page. This button is already active so one can share Youtube videos that you enjoy.

All in all, Google Plus looks like it will be a real success. It is very efficient to use, and has a certain ‘New age’ feel. It has no adverts so it beats Facebook in that respect. The “Hangout” feature is certainly amazing as well. Whether Google Plus will be the usurper of Facebook’s throne, nobody knows yet. It is sure to be a challenger though.