Google+ Hangout Just Might Lure Facebookers
Scott Moritz
Scott Moritz
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Google's(GOOG) Facebook imitation, Google+, throws a lot of social networking features at the wall, and one just might stick: "Hangout," its video conferencing service.
Hangout is one of several offerings Google hopes will lure people to its new social homepage called Google+. The site is designed to give users a place to organize their friends and interests in sort of a visual contact list. The company introduced the service Tuesday and is making it available as a field trial to select people.
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The move is just the latest attempt by Google to find some entry into the social trend where Facebook has enjoyed a commanding presence. Social networking offers the sort of community that builds on shared interests and a degree of trust, and as such it is a fertile area for advertising that Google can't afford to miss.
A year in the making, Google+ has some of the obvious functions you'd expect. Its Circles feature lets you drag and drop your friends into groupings or compartments. And in a direct imitation of Facebook, Google+ offers Stream, a news feed that chronicles all the comments and photos your friends are posting.
But Hangout is different.