sep 11, 2011 - Google+ for Everyone: What You Need to Know

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Three months ago, Google launched an all-out, brazen competitor to Facebook called Google+ — pronounced “Google plus.” Google’s rival network offered several features that addressed frequent complaints about Facebook.

On Google+, there are no “friend” relationships that users feel socially obligated to accept. Users’ personal information, including whom they share what with, is private by default. There’s a group video chat feature, called Hangouts, that lets up to 10 people see and talk to each other at once. You can’t do that on Facebook.


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But Google+ had one big roadblock: Membership was restricted. To be allowed to join, you had to be invited either by Google, or by another user. Google frequently restricted new signups, even to those who had been invited. Tens of millions of people managed to sign up anyway, but many more were either locked out, or gave up trying to register after getting the error message, “We have temporarily exceeded our capacity.”

I know what you’re thinking: How could Google’s servers ever be over capacity? The company throttled back signups to prevent Google+ from being overrun by newcomers who might log in, decide there’s nothing there and never come back. The 12-week restricted access period also gave Google time to fix problems and add new features, based on feedback from a smaller group of early adopters, before opening the gates to the masses.

Today, the gates are open. “Anyone can sign up for Google+ — no invitation required,” Google exec Vic Gundotra announced in a blog post that also touts 99 improvements made to Google+ since June.

To sign up, go to plus.google.com to create a username and password, or to use your existing Gmail or Google account. Google has an ample online help archive that includes a “Get Started” section.

Two earlier posts of mine might also be helpful: What Google+ Is All About is an overview of the service, and a look at how it differs from Facebook. How to Hide From Annoying People on Google+ addresses a common complaint from Facebook refugees. And there are plenty of blog posts and articles all over the Internet about how to use Google+. Search for “Google+ primer” to find several.

One more thing: If you’ve got an iPhone or Android phone, install the free Google+ app. It lets you keep up while on the move, and automatically uploads any photos or videos you shoot on your phone to a private archive on your Google+ account. That makes it easy and quick to share them with carefully-chosen groups of Google+ users later, or – with a few clicks on your computer – to post them to Facebook.

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