Google+ challenges Facebook in social networking

Online search giant Google has launched a new social networking website in its latest attempt to take on Facebook, which now claims more than 500m users.  Google+ allows individuals to share photos, messages and comments but also integrates the company's maps and images into the service.

It also aims to help users easily organise contacts within groups.

But some analysts say Google has simply reproduced features of Facebook while adding a video chat function.

Google, which handles roughly two out of every three internet searches in the US, has taken several stabs at Facebook in recent years.

But its previous efforts ended in failure, with both Google Wave and Google Buzz proving unpopular with users.

New functions
The company is now boasting that four features in Google+ could help make the company a permanent player in social networking:

• Circles - a functionality that allows individuals to place friends into groups, allowing users to share different forms of content with targeted clusters of friends
• Hangouts - live multi-user video conferencing that permits friends to drop in and out of live group conversations
• Huddle - group instant messaging
• Sparks - a feature that connects individuals on the network to others with common interests.
• The current version of Google+ has only been released to a small number of users, but the company has said it soon hopes to make the social network available to the millions of individuals that use its services each day.

Google Voice Integrated With Sprint

Sprint customers soon will be able to use their existing mobile numbers with Google Voice.

Google and Sprint say they are working together to integrate Google Voice with Sprint's mobile service. The two companies also announced the upcoming availability of Samsung's Nexus S 4G, which will come preloaded with the Google Voice Android app.

Google Voice is commonly characterized as a threat to mobile carriers because it offers services like texting for free and low-rate international calling, and because it makes Google, rather than the mobile carrier, the provider of voicemail service. Companies generally do not welcome third-parties interacting with their customers and providing services when that interaction could interfere with their relationship with their customers.

In 2009, for example, Apple refused to approve the Google Voice app for its iPhone, a move that the company justified by claiming that Google Voice "appears to alter the iPhone's distinctive user experience by replacing the iPhone's core mobile telephone functionality and Apple user interface with its own user interface for telephone calls, text messaging and voicemail." In so doing, Apple was defending not only its user interface but its relationship, and AT&T's relationship, with iPhone customers.

But Sprint, as the smallest of the remaining major mobile carriers in the U.S., may face more of a threat from AT&T, which plans to acquire T-Mobile, and from Verizon than from Google. Indeed, Sprint appears to be enthusiastic about turning its voicemail service over to Google.

"It's now easier than ever to truly live a mobile lifestyle with the ability to manage multiple devices through intelligent call routing and online controls using just one phone number – your existing Sprint number," said Kevin McGinnis, Sprint VP of product and technology development, in a statement.

Google Voice has several million users and could double or triple in size if only a small portion of Sprint's 50 million customers decide to use the service.

Google Voice provides a single number that can route calls to multiple devices and through Gmail, along with other services like voicemail transcription, free text messaging, and low-rate international calling. It also allows personalized voicemail greeting messages, call recording and call blocking.

Sprint customers will be able to access to these services through their existing mobile numbers. Voice calls initiated through Gmail and text messages sent through Google Voice will utilize this same number, eliminating the confusion arising from having an existing mobile number and a new Google Voice number.

If Sprint customers choose to maintain separate Google Voice numbers, they will have the option to use their Google Voice numbers for calls or text messages sent through their Sprint handset.

In January, Google enabled number porting, which allows users to move existing phone numbers to Google Voice.

more info at http://www.google.com/support/voice/bin/answer.py?answer=1205636