Google+ now open to all, no invitations required, site gets new features

Google+ now open to all, sees major improvements

Today, Google has announced that their social network, Google+ has made 91 improvements in its 90 day existence and the biggest announcement of all is that the gates are now open to anyone who wants to join as it leaves the invitation-only private beta. No more begging friends for an invitation, no more wondering what all of the fuss is about.

Additionally, Google+ has added search so users can search for people and posts from the Google+ search box rather than using third party apps for search. The fact that this wasn’t originally built in given Google’s pension for search was surprising and was highly criticized.

Google Hangouts got a major upgrade today as users can now video chat over Hangouts on their smartphone or watch “Hangouts on Air,” which is an option users can select to broadcast their Hangouts publicly. Users can share their screen from a Hangout and even share Google Docs.

Brands are still not allowed to create a profile as Google+ is only limited to verifiable, legitimate people, as they seek to bring accountability to their social network as opposed to unlimited accounts and identities on competing networks like Twitter. Brands will be penalized for setting up accounts, but Google will ultimately offer a professional version in coming months.

“Google+ is still in its infancy, of course, but we’re more excited than ever to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to software. Today we’re releasing nine more features that get us that much closer,” said Vic Gundotra, Senior Vice President of Engineering at Google.