On Tuesday of this week, Google revealed that it was jumping into the social network pool with both feet, announcing the test launch of what many experts regard as a very Facebook-like social networking service called Google+.

While Google’s official release bemoans how “todays online services turn friendship into fast food – wrapping everyone in the “friend” paper – and sharing really suffers,” it’s clear that the Internet giant has been looking at Facebook’s 500+ million users with a covetous eye.

Reports indicate that Google+ will work much like Facebook with regard to status updates, posts, shared links and photo uploads, but what Google hopes will differentiate it from Facebook is the introduction of a few noteworthy features:

+Circles
Google+ will allow users to create circles of friends based on their own, individual criteria (e.g., family, tailgate buddies, supper club) and give them ability to share certain information only with those folks.

+Sparks
An online sharing engine that “delivers a feed of highly contagious content from across the Internet” once users identify what subject areas/topics are of interest to them.

+Hangouts
Not a “place-locater” like Facebook Places or FourSquare, +Hangouts is a social application that allows live, multi-person video so that users can spend online “face time” with those in their circles.

+Instant Upload
For those accessing Google+ from a mobile devices, photos and videos are automatically stored in the cloud, eliminating the hassle of uploading and making it easier to share them within circles.

+Huddle
Allows multi-person texting (a.k.a. group chatting) so that “everyone gets on the same page all at once.”

Aims at Enterprise?
In a recent article by Computerworld’s Sharon Gaudin, CurrentAnalysis analyst Brad Shimmin notes that Google is positioning itself to compete not just with Facebook, but with Microsoft as well, as a few tweaks here and there (especially with regard to the Google Apps suite) would allow Google+ to step into the enterprise market by offering a collaborative (read: document sharing via the cloud) platform within +Circles.

If true, and Google+ does indeed become integrate with Google Apps, Google will bridge the huge gap that has always existed between social and enterprise network, possibly changing the game once again.

Take the Google+ tour to find out more about this new social network.

Joey Hall
VP Content Marketing