GOOGLE+ NOW OPEN TO PUBLIC

After 12 weeks of "beta" testing only open to those with invitations, Google+ is now open to everyone, no invitation needed. Google+ is Google's latest attempt at social networking and is bringing the fight to Facebook. From Hangouts (video calling with multiple people) to Circles (ability to group friends together into groups and send updates to selected circles) and user friendly privacy settings, Google hopes to bring social networking to the next level. During the 12 week "beta" testing period Google+ has garnered over 20 million users and acquired acclaim from the tech sector.

To join Google+ head over to Google and sign up.

DELL CONSIDERS USING GOOGLE+ HANGOUTS FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE

Michael Dell is toying with the idea of using Google+ Hangouts for Dell’s customer support. The service allows users to initiate a video chat session with multiple people inside their Google+ circles. “I am thinking about hangouts for business. Would you like to be able to connect with your Dell service and sale teams via video directly from Dell.com?” he posted on his Google+ page on Sunday. The idea was an instant success: 556 people had given the comment a +1 as of Tuesday morning and hundreds more left comments in support of the suggestion.

As GigaOm points out, it is currently not possible to start a “Hangout” session from anywhere but from inside Google+ itself. The social network is still in a young invite-only phase, too, so some customers would not have access just yet. Still, Google has said that it plans to offer Google+ for businesses, so perhaps Dell’s idea could come to fruition down the road.