Google+ hits public beta

By Tom Brewster

 Google’s latest attempt at social networking has gone into public beta, three months after being announced.

To mark the public availability of Google+ the company announced a range of extra features, including a number of improvements to video calling tool +Hangouts.

Mobile functionality has been added, so users running Android 2.3 or above will be able to use the feature when on the move.

We’re nowhere near done, but with the improvements we’ve made so far we’re ready to move from field trial to beta.

Google Docs integration and screensharing have been added, whilst Hangouts APIs for developers to build apps for the communications platform.

It follows on from the announcement of general Google+ APIs.

“For the past 12 weeks we’ve been in field trial, and during that time we’ve listened and learned a great deal,” said Vic Gundotra, Google’s senior vice president of engineering, in a blog post.

“We’re nowhere near done, but with the improvements we’ve made so far we’re ready to move from field trial to beta.”

Google has also brought its search expertise into its social network.

“Just type what you’re looking for into the Google+ search box, and we’ll return relevant people and posts, as well as popular content from around the web,” Gundotra added.

Google is to open a bespoke enterprise Google+ experience in the coming months. The testing phase is currently underway.

The internet giant had deleted company profiles from the consumer service as it sought to establish a real-name culture on the site.

itpro