Google Starts New Social Network

The Huffington Post reports:

Google has finally launched its long-awaited social network, the Google+ project.

The Google+ network is designed around users' social circles (called +Circles) and lets users selectively share with specific groups within their personal network, rather than sharing with all their social connections at once.

The search giant emphasizes Google+'s privacy customizations and hopes that users will choose to use the new service over more established networks like Facebook and Twitter.

"In real life, we have walls and windows and I can speak to you knowing who's in the room, but in the online world, you get to a ‘Share' box and you share with the whole world," Bradley Horowitz, a VP of product management at Google, told the New York Times. By granting the user more control over what is shared, how and with whom, Google+ attempts to make the online sharing experience more secure and more personal.

In addition to +Circles, Google's network will also let users add interests, video chat in groups, share content via mobile and many more features that should be familiar to social network users.