Thinking about Google+ and Facebook as competing services loses sight of the benefits each service separately has to offer, however comparisons with Facebook can be useful as a familiar territory with which to distinguish the attributes of Google+.
Understanding Circles
The highlighted feature of Google+ is its circles. From the first login, a Google+ user is encouraged to create groups (circles) and put people into them. These groups serve two purposes: They will be the people whose posts you get to easily see, and the groups to whom you will be able to share (limit) posts. You can create lots of circles, and you can assign individuals to more than one circle (ie, "Friends" and "Code Monkeys").
When you post on Google+ your update is only visible to the audience you select for it. You can post to the public (anyone who has you in a circle will see this post, whether you have that person in a circle or not), to all your circles (only people you have added to a circle will see your post), to your extended circles (your circles and all the people in their circles, if those people check their "incoming" stream or have you circled), or to a specific circle (such as "Family" or "Coworkers"). You can also have a private conversation by limiting your post to an individual.
The confusing part for many new users is that there is no reciprocity requirement to the circles paradigm. I can "circle" you, and that means I will see all your public posts, much like following someone on Twitter. I will see these public posts whether you circle me back or not. However you must place me in a circle for me to see the posts you limit to those in your circles - me circling you is not enough.
Note that audience and announcement controls are not a new concept: Facebook has this with their "lists" feature, but Google+ highlights this control instead of burying it. Facebook too allows for the idea of "followers" without reciprocal "friending" on its fan pages, but this requires a separate type of profile from one containing reciprocal friends, and focuses on a more public interaction. The Google+ sharing and following options seem more finely tuned.
Hangouts
The Hangouts feature is Google+ specific, and took a bit of the thunder out of Facebook's big Skype integration news. After each user downloads and installs the browser plugin, you and 9 of your best buds (or 9 of your classmates, or 9 of your coworkers) can all see one another on video chat. You get to invite the individual users, or you can invite a whole circle (first come first served). You can mute your own video or audio with a mouse click, or even click over to use a typed chat.
Aside from being able to video chat, you can also watch YouTube videos in a Hangout. Anyone in the group has the ability to pause, play, or pick a different video. While at first glance just a fun feature, with the option of making private, unlisted YouTube videos*, this could easily be a way to share a presentation (record it to YouTube ahead of time, with or without audio, and let YouTube take the place of PowerPoint or another presentation program). While you can't currently share a document in Hangouts, it wouldn't surprise me if that option were available in the future (demand will tell).
Some have argued that this is Google+'s driving goal: Simplified sharing. Integration with Google docs and the ability to finely control who sees a post (containing words, links, photos, or documents) and controlling whether that post can be reshared further are critical and defining characteristics of the platform.
Images
On a personal note, my favorite feature of Google+ so far is the integration of a true photo service (Picasa). I hadn't been a Picasa user previously, but Facebook's low-resolution photo albums are too limited for my taste. While I want my friends to easily see and tag from within the social network, I also want to have my full size beautiful photos available. Also I'm uncomfortable with some of the past confusion over copyright ownership on Facebook. What to do? Google+ and its easy integration with Picasa offer a solution.
Evolution
Google+ has its developers participate very actively in its community, so several features of Google+ have already changed from its first unveiling. This makes the service seem more responsive and engaged with its users. However, this is arguably easier with fewer users, it will be interesting to see if the trend continues as Google+ grows.
Invites
Curious? Want to try Google+ for yourself? The first 25+ interested commenters on this post over the next month will be sent a Google+ invite. Comment below, and if you don't want your email address available to the public, feel free to email it to me privately at my WVU email address, Erin.Kelley@mail.wvu.edu, with "Google+ request" in the subject. I will update this post and remove my email address here when I am no longer giving out invites.
Also, on Google+ you can have animated gifs (but not on Facebook). You're welcome.
(Surprised kitty animated gif posted to Google+ by Jon Janego, shared here via Picasa's "Blog This!" Blogger feature.)
*For how to create private YouTube videos visit the ITRC helpsheet page: http://oit.wvu.edu/itrc/faculty/handouts/ and scroll to the bottom.
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