Is Google+ The Google Portal?

Google+ is not a Facebook killer. That's not the plan Google has for its new social network-at least for now. Instead, what Google+ aims to be is a portal: a service that centralizes all of your connections, Google products and Internet content, in the process allowing you to seamlessly transition between communicating, working and consuming content from social media on one same platform. Google wants you to do more or less everything you usually do on the Internet through Google+.

The closest Google has come to a portal is the Personalized Google homepage (renamed iGoogle) in which one can add different widgets to get news, weather forecasts, emails and RSS feeds on one screen. But the format is clunky and outdated and sharing is impossible. With Google+, the technology giant is attempting to finally agglomerate everything.

On the Google+ website, you can communicate with people in a similar fashion as you do on Facebook. You can also get news filtered to your interests (known as "sparks") and recommended by people in your circles.

But don't think of Google+ as being merely a network of your circles. It will also be a network of your Google products. People who are already on Google+ have seen how the Google banner which appears on top of such products as Gmail, Google Docs and Google Reader, amongst others, now has a Google+ component to it. At present what this means is that you can share content with your circles whenever you're using those products. And you're always on the ball because notifications also show on the banner. But in the long run, what this will culminate into is the linking of a number of Google products to Google+, and by extension to your circles.

Just as you share links to interesting articles or blog posts with your circles (or post links on your friends' walls on Facebook), you'll be able to share Google documents as easily. You'll be able to schedule hangouts with circles through Google Calendar. You'll know the real time location of your friends and arrange a meet-up on Google Maps. All the Google+ app on your mobile perhaps. In essence all sharing will occur through Google+. This will make collaborations and sharing this much easier.

And with the power of circles, you'll be able to organize your personal content from say your work content rather easily. This is a big plus because it means that you can enjoy the company of your friends and share office documents with your co-workers through on same portal without any conflicts. Thus reestablishing that Google+ can be your one-stop portal.

The introduction of a Google's portal right after the release of Chrome OS, Google's operating system, is also welcome. The adoption of Chrome OS comes perhaps with the pretention that one can depend on Google products for a complete web experience. But comparing the relevant Google products with Microsoft's Office suites for instance is just not feasible. However, Google products have been created with the web experience in mind and one fundamental and important aspect of this experience is sharing-which is where Google+ fits in. It may well complete the web experience that Chrome OS promises in the process allowing Google products to finally demark themselves from the presently better alternatives.

Well, this is how I view the evolution of Google+. But before we can even begin to think about Google+'s evolution, maybe we have to see if it lifts off properly first! In the meantime, do share your views on the subject.

Image credit: Google

Some interesting Google+ reviews by science bloggers:

My First Impressions of Google+ by Sheril Kirshenbaum

Google+ for the Blogger and Researcher by Jason G. Goldman

Google+, not Wave or Buzz by Razib Khan

Also, for an insight on Google+, check out this post by Steven Levy on the Wired blog, Epicenter: Inside Google+-How the Search Giant Plans to Go Social.