Last June 28, 2011, the search engine giant Google launched Google+, Google’s new social networking service. The service was initially introduced in an invite-only phase; on the next day, existing users who are above 18 years old were permitted to invite friends to create their own Google+ accounts.

The company announced that Google+ will integrate different social services such as Google Profiles and Google Buzz. Google + will be available as an application for desktops and on Android and iOS operating systems.

Google+ offers new innovative features that you can use

• “+ Circles” allows you to manage all your contacts and friends into groups that can share across a variety of Google products and friends. Just create a circle, drag-and-drop your friends, and share what you want with them.
• “+Huddle” enables you to interact with friends from your circle through Android, iPhone, and SMS devices.
• “+ Hangouts” are facilitates where you can do live group video chats. At any point in time, you can video-chat with a maximum of 10 people.
• “+ Instant Upload” stores photos and videos in a private album in your Android mobile device. It is important to know that this feature is specific to Android mobile devices only.
•  “+ Sparks” enables you to identify and share topics that you might want to share with others. It also allows you to strike up a conversation about anything you want to talk about. Just add your interest to your Google+ account and you will always receive a feed of topics, news, and issues.
• “+ Streams” allows you to monitor your circle member’s updates, similar to Facebook’s news feed. You can also type in a status updates and click on icons to share photos and videos.

Google + is indeed an exciting Internet phenomenon to watch out for. But have you ever asked yourself why Google, which is already a dominant force the search engine market and other online industries, is aggressively penetrating the social networking industry through this new product? Well, according to Internet junkies, this is an attempt to rival the king of social networking sites Facebook, which has more than 500 million users in 2010.

Will Facebook finally have a worthy competitor? Will Google overthrow Facebook just as it did with other search engines? We will never know, but one thing is for sure. The end consumer—the Internet user—will have more options to bring nuance, richness of real-life sharing, and better relationships with friends and business partners with this development.