14 DAY TRIAL // Three months after unveiling Google+, 90 days to be exact, Google is opening it up to the public. The social network designed to take on Facebook is now available to all, no invite and no tricks required, just visit Google Plus and sign up.
While the early adoration is turning into the exact opposite for some users, as is always the case with any shiny new thing, three months after it became available it's safe to label Google+ a success.
While it's still too early to tell if Google+ will fulfill Google's ambitions, of taking on Facebook, there's not much more than anyone would have expected a Google-built social product to achieve in three months' time, considering Google's track record.
It managed to get more than 10 million users within weeks of its launch and, while its growth probably leveled off after that, it's very likely that Google+ has a few tens of millions of users at this point. The perfect time to open it up then.
"For the past 12 weeks we’ve been in field trial, and during that time we’ve listened and learned a great deal," Vic Gundotra, senior vice president of Engineering, who heads Google+, said.
"We’re nowhere near done, but with the improvements we’ve made so far we’re ready to move from field trial to beta, and introduce our 100th feature: open signups," he announced.
"This way anyone can visit google.com/+, join the project and connect with the people they care about," he added.
Along with opening the gates, Google also announced several new features and announcements. The group video chat feature, Hangouts, is getting a major revamp with support for mobile devices, broadcasting and even Google Docs integration.
A search feature has been finally introduced for Google+, long overdue, given Google's heritage. The mobile apps have also gotten some new capabilities.
Interestingly enough, all of these announcements come just before Facebook's F8 developers' conference, which promises a series of big announcements. The timing is not a coincidence.