Monday, July 11, 2011

Google+: A New Spin on Your Email

Admittedly, I may be a few weeks behind on this, but I felt inclined to post about this because of two reasons:

1. Since Google+ has just released this new program to a select few this last month before they expand more – therefore, I don’t feel completely left in the dark.

2. Considering we were just discussing email on Friday, this felt relevant and interesting.

For those of in my same boat – what is Google+?

Google+ includes the updates and additions that Google has made to its email services and in a nutshell, another potential social networking platform.

A few cool highlights include:

Circles – Linking with your email, Circles, allows you to easily make “circles of friends,” “circles of family” or even more specific circles of any people you want – overall, making it easier to maintain lists, contact groups, etc.

Sparks – “Sparks looks for videos and articles it thinks you’ll like, so when you’re free, there’s always something to watch, read, and share.” Cool – as if we are not inundated with enough info on a daily basis, but okay.

Hangouts – This feature helps you “coordinate” or at least more openly orchestrate bumping into friends while out and about, by letting your buddies know where you are hanging out – you never know who may decide to drop by.

Google+ has also added some mobile features including:

Instant Upload – In order to combat the agony we all face when trying to upload and share photos, Instant Upload, automatically uploads your photos for easy access and sharing capabilities.

Huddle – My personal favorite is Huddle which allows you to turn the many different conversations you may be having with six different people, but about the same thing (i.e. coordinating a movie time) into one simple group chat – genius!

So this all seems great on a personal note, but I actually think this can help self-employed business owners, individual artists, small companies or non-profits start up and manage some of their email communication and events. I have yet to see if there are analytics linked to this, but knowing Google, it can’t be far behind.

To check out more - visit the website for Google+

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