Having launched only 30 days ago on June 28, 2011, Google Plus is still in essence the new kid on the social network “block” as it were, even so the service is already making waves among professional and general users. Less than four weeks after Google Plus launched, The Wall Street Journal reported on July 22, 2011 that the social networking site had already reached over 20 million users, despite the fact that service operated solely based on a limited invite only system for roughly a week. Though that same day Google removed several official business profiles created on Google Plus claiming that the service was not yet ready for business profiles, at the moment Google just doesn’t have a system in place like Facebook’s existing business pages like the Marlabs Inc Facebook page. However, Google has said that it’s alright with company officials or representatives of a brand creating personal profiles which they can also use to promote their business. The only problem with this approach though is that when Google add business pages to Google Plus there will be no way for the existing users to migrate their profile to a new business profile, according to Google developers. Therefore, users should take care when creating a profile for promoting their business.
Although Google has recommended that companies wait to create a corporate or fan page on Google Plus, many enterprising businesses people have already flocked to the growing social networking site. The reason that Google Plus has attracted so many general and coporate users is because of Google Plus is the selective sharing and viewing features that are possible with the service’s system which they are calling “circles”. Circles are a group of people that a user can apply a custom name or classification to on Google Plus. When a Google Plus users posts an update in their steam, which is the equivalent to Facebook’s wall, he or she can then select which circle or circles that are allowed to see the update. For example, a Google Plus user can choose to post an update about their sister’s birthday partly and limit it only to people that are part of their family circle. That same Google Plus user could also post another update to their stream and only let their friends or coworker see the post instead of their family. Furthermore, users of Google Plus can choose to see updates from one particular circle at a time instead of Facebook’s approach of having everything presented in one location. So if you want to see all of the posts made by Marlabs in a nutshell or by your closest friend then that is all possible with Google Plus.
Source: VentureBeat
Photo by Bruce Clay, Inc
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