14 DAY TRIAL // Early adopters and the tech crowd have taken a liking to the new Google+ social network, though the project is still in the early days. Developers have been looking with interest as well.
Unfortunately, at launch, there is no Google+ API for apps and websites to start leveraging the new social site. But you can be sure that a platform is coming, in fact Google is even providing a place to sign up for notifications.
No official details and plans have been revealed - an API is coming, that much is for sure, but when and what it will entail is still unknown. It is very possible that Google doesn't even know yet, since the project is still in the early stages.
Google+ launched in a limited, public, but mostly invite-only beta. Google said that it only announced it officially because it was going to be leaked anyway, once real users started to get in.
Since Google+ was at the stage where it needed real user feedback, the main site along with its core components, like group video chat, the mobile app and so on, were revealed.
The core of the site is already there, all of the social networking components are present, it may not be completely on par with Facebook on all fronts, but it's too close to make a difference.
Still, since Google+ is not yet complete itself, talks of a platform are premature. Google does have a very strong developer culture and provides APIs for many of its services and products.
What's more, considering the wild success the Facebook Platform has had, with social gaming from the likes of Zynga, along with Facebook Connect and the Facebook buttons, a social network without a strong set of APIs is not going to appeal to anyone.
For a long time, one of Twitter's core strengths has been its healthy ecosystem of developers building on top of the site. Google+ has some resemblances with Twitter as well, the asymmetrical follow system for example, enough for it to be a threat of sorts to the popular microblogging service.
UPDATE: Google has posted the first details about the upcoming Google+ API and platform.