Example of Public Communities on Google+ |
Google introduced Google+ communities this week. It is Google’s answer to Facebook Groups. According to Vic Gundotra, Senior Vice President of Google in a recent post,
“From photography to astronomy (and everything in between), Google+ has always been a place to crowd around common interests and meet new people. What’s been missing, however, are more permanent homes for all the stuff you love: the wonderful, the weird, and yes, even the things that are waaay out there. With Google+ Communities there’s now a gathering place for your passions, including:
- Public or private membership to support all kinds of groups—from topics and interests to local neighborhoods to regular poker nights
- Discussion categories to find the conversations you care about most
- The option to start hangouts and plan events with community members
- The ability to share with your community from any +1 button across the web
To give it a try just click on the new “Communities” icon, then create or join your favorite community.
Vic also announced the rollout of Snapseed, the photo app by Nik Software which Google acquired earlier this year, to Google Play and the App Store, free of charge.
About Google+ stats, Vic has this to say:
“Today Google+ is the fastest-growing network thingy ever. More than 500 million people have upgraded, 235 million are active across Google (+1’ing apps in Google Play, hanging out in Gmail, connecting with friends in Search…), and 135 million are active in just the stream.”
Launched in the summer of 2011, this is up from 100 million in September 2012.