Google’s latest attempt stab at a social network, Google+, has proved to be quite the hit amongst the tech elite and casual users alike – so much so that Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has joined to check out the competition, and is currently the most-followed user, with 21,213 followers at the time of writing (Google’s Larry Page is in second with 14,798). Popular singer Taylor Swift has been the first “real” celebrity to jump on the Google+ bandwagon.
The Google-flavoured social site, which allows friends and people you follow to be grouped ito “circles”, saw such massive demand for invites at launch that Google’s social tsar Vic Gundotra announced they were turning invites off for an indefinite period.
One of the site’s most lauded features, Hangouts, lets users conduct ad-hoc multi-person video chat, a feature never previously available through the browser. Google+ also boasts an excellent Android app, and Google have said they are waiting on Apple’s approval to launch the iOS version.
Somewhat predictably the site’s popularity is already being exploited by internet scamsters, some attempting to sell invitations for as much as $75 on eBay, and email messages promising invitations to the service in fact lead to a viagra site – a scam which security firm Sophos accurate characterised as “amateur”.
There are probably sighs of relief this week around Google’s Mountain View campus, not least from Vic Gundotra, after new CEO Larry Page linked all staff bonuses to the search giant’s success in social this year.
