The ongoing one-upmanship between social network newbie Google+ and social network giant Facebook is resulting in an introduction of a slew of new features, benefiting the user. The latest in line is the arrival of the much requested Google+ shared circles.
One of the most eagerly awaited features since Google+ was launched in June, the Google+ shared features allows users to swap lists of friends and celebrities with each other. In order to get the feature started all you will have to do is click ‘share’ next to the circle in question. And of course, your friends will be able to reshare the circles with their friends.
There could be any number of reasons why a user would want to share a Google+ circle. A user could want to share their curated list of celebrities, photographers or reporters with friends. When you do this a post will be made allowing others to easily view and join the circle you have shared. However, the friends with whom you have shared the circles will not be able to see the name of it, which will remain private. Again, this is a one-time post, if you modify the circles the modifications will not show up in the shared circles unless you share it again.
Owen Prater, Google+ engineer announced the feature officially in a video explaining, “when your friends receive your circle, they can pick and choose who to add to their own circles.”
Here’s the video which shows how the new feature works:
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Though the Google+ shared circles is not similar to the Facebook style ‘Groups’ feature, it is definitely more privacy-oriented and gives the user a finer control over what they choose to reveal when using the new feature.
It certainly seems like Google is trying to hasten the Google+ development and feature release cycle now that it is out of field test and is open to all. Last week, Google introduced a number of new features to Hangouts, including making the feature available on Android devices, the ability to live stream and record video broadcasts and introduction of a better search box.
It is clear that in the days to come, both Google+ and Facebook are going to try and be more user-friendly. Whether this will enable them to co-exist peacefully or will sound the death knell for one of them, only time will tell.