Google recently launched its new Social Networking website, Google+. This is after a series of flop shows including Orkut, Buzz, Wave etc. Like any other Social Networking website, Google claims that Google+ will be a basis for the people to connect with each other. Presently, Google+ has not been opened to the general public and people can only make an account through an invitation. Google, being a giant firm, aims to bring down Facebook as the leader in the area of Social Networking.

According to a post published by Google, ‘Today, the connections between people increasingly happen online. Yet the subtlety and substance of real-world interactions are lost in the rigidness of our online tools. In this basic, human way, online sharing is awkward. Even broken. And we aim to fix it.’

Google also said, ‘We’d like to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to software. We want to make Google better by including you, your relationships, and your interests. And so begins the Google+ project.’

Google+ offers a lot of new features like Circles, Hangouts etc. Circles are sort of friend lists in which you can add people and easily customize the settings of what you want to share with whom. The interesting and good-looking interface is also another advantage. The drag and drop way of adding people to Circles seems lively. The Hangout feature is also a great addition that allows you to have group video chats.

According to the New York Times, ‘At stake is Google’s status as the most popular entry point to the Web. When people post on Facebook, which is mostly off-limits to search engines, Google loses valuable information that could benefit its Web search, advertising and other products.’

Google seems to be far behind Facebook when it comes to the number of people. According to a survey, till May, around 160 million people were believed to spend time on Facebook compared to 45 million on Orkut. On the other hand, with the regular Facebook status updates, the Google search engine seems to be losing its value. In other words, people now discuss topics and find information on Facebook and Twitter, for which they earlier used Google. It will be really interesting to see if Google can affect Facebook in any way and can stand up to its own and the people’s expectations.