Google+ Opens To All, Launches Search, Expanded Hangouts And More (UPDATE) (PICTURES)

This post has been updated.

Google+ is now open to anyone who wants to get in.

In a Tuesday post on the Official Google Blog, Google announced that it is launching nine new features, including open signups.

"For the past 12 weeks we've been in field trial, and during that time we've listened and learned a great deal. We're nowhere near done, but with the improvements we've made so far we're ready to move from field trial to beta, and introduce our 100th feature: open signups. This way anyone can visit google.com/+, join the project and connect with the people they care about," Senior Vice President of Engineering Vic Gundotra wrote for the blog post.

Google also launched Search for Google+, as well as an expansion of its Hangouts video chat feature and more.

Searching within Google+ will let users seek out other users, posts, and "popular content from around the web," the way they would using Google's search engine.

Google+ users will now be able to initiate Hangouts via Android 2.3 devices and higher. "iOS support is coming soon," Gundotra promised on the Google Blog. "On Air" broadcasts will let some users record live chat sessions that others can tune in to.

Google is also releasing "a basic set of Hangouts APIs" to developers, so expect some fun new Hangouts features soon. For now, Google lists its most recent Hangout updates on the Google Blog:

• Screensharing: for when you want to show off your vacation photos, your high score, your lesson plan or whatever else is on your screen


• Sketchpad: for when you want to draw, doodle, or just scribble together


• Google Docs: for when you want to write, plan or present something with others


• Named Hangouts: for when you want to join or create a public hangout about a certain topic (like fashion or music or sports...)

For the past three months, the social network has been in invite-only mode while Google continuously rolled out new features. Tuesday's features launched as the service moves from "field trial" into "beta."

In less than two months, Google+ exploded to 25 million members, making it the fastest-growing social network ever, according to comScore.

Visit the Google Blog for more about what's new from Google+. Visit the Google Mobile Blog to check out the handful of upgrades that also debuted today for the G+ mobile app.

Take a look at some of Google+'s newest features (below)

Google+ Search:

Mobile Hangouts For Android:

Live Broadcasts Of Hangouts:

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Will Google+ reach 100m users in 2011?

• Yes

• No

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Comments

[StinkyPete0279]

04:24 PM on 09/21/2011

It's cute how many people were pronouncing it "dead" when it was still in a more-or-less closed beta

[kareruhana]

03:29 PM on 09/25/2011

This is exactly what i was about to post, then saw you had already made that point. Yes, it was closed in beta, of course it's not hopping with activity yet.

[Mick Gase]

01:24 PM on 09/21/2011

Is everyone jumping ship to Google+ ?

[JFetch]

12:33 PM on 09/21/2011

Facebook will just steal all these features like they have everything else Google+ has.

[LeftFoLyfe]

12:00 PM on 09/21/2011

Oh, now you are ready to let me in? I, however, am not ready to enter! I'll tell you what, you contact my other social networking sites and beg them to let me join you, then we'll see how I feel after. Ok, go!

And the master becomes the student.

[kareruhana]

03:39 PM on 09/25/2011

They needed to test it out on a small group first, to be sure it was running smoothly and they'd worked out all the glitches before inviting the whole world. If they had let you in from the beginning, you (and everyone else) would have been complaining about the constant errors and glitches. I think this way is better.

[aphextwin07]

11:19 AM on 09/21/2011

too little too late?

[Kyle Noe]

03:22 AM on 09/21/2011

I prefer to use several different services in my internet usage. I don't like one company controlling everything I do on the internet, from email to searching to maps. Not social networking too.

[Ghee Lequip]

02:41 AM on 09/21/2011

lurve it...

[syl1969]

10:51 PM on 09/20/2011

All I want Google to do is pay their taxes in this country

[Isenki]

10:01 PM on 09/20/2011

Haha, I stopped using Google+ over a month ago.

[Mike Clark II]

09:09 PM on 09/20/2011

and the migration has begun

[SevenUPtheUNCOOLA]

08:43 PM on 09/20/2011

i predicted yes they would reach 100m signups by december 31.

but half of them will be pet iguanas, cockatoos, donkeys and boll weevils.

[Dean2722]

09:37 PM on 09/20/2011

Thanks. That's really funny. I need comic relief from Google.

[natal plum]

07:29 PM on 09/20/2011

Google's daily big announcements. Yawn

[Rachel Shoemaker]

05:39 PM on 09/20/2011

NO WAY! They pulled the gaming apps and are canceling them, they are supposed to cancel Superpoke Pets in aboout 6 mos. I will never use google anything ever again! They lied to us last summer when they bought Slide and lead us to believe SPP was going nowhere and encouraged to spend money and then they pull this crap! NO, GOOGLE+ never ever!!!!!

[kareruhana]

03:41 PM on 09/25/2011

So there will be no gaming apps on G+? Bad idea. The games are half the reason people use FB.

[snallygaster]

05:23 PM on 09/20/2011

And the crowd goes... mild.

If you hold a revolution and nobody shows up...

Could it be that the potential of corporate social media may have been overhyped? That the capacity of the public to hyperconnect and hypershare was hyperbole? Say it ain't so!

I've said it before and I'll say it again. "Social Media" is a dead noun. Rather, all relevant media has social components. Let's move on, K?

[DanSc]

05:05 PM on 09/20/2011

Friendster+ will not be saved.