Google+ Now in Public Beta with Slew of New Features

Three months after releasing an invite-only version of Google+, Google has finally opened its social network to the public. The search giant also announced several important upgrades to its social project, adding to the 91 improvements that have already been made to Google+ since it has been launched.

One feature that users of Google+ have been waiting on impatiently is Search. Now Google has leveraged its mastery in the field to bring search to Google+ and allow users to search for people, posts, and web content easily by typing their queries in the search box. “Google+ search results include items that only you can see, so family updates are just as easy to find as international news,” Vic Gundotra, Senior Vice President of Engineering at Google wrote in a blog post.

Google has also released a slew of new features for Google+ group video chat service Hangouts. The company has now launched Hangouts on mobile device, and the new functionality is currently available on Android 2.3+ phones with front-facing cameras.  The new Android app is available on Android Market, with upgrades to iOS app coming soon.

Another new feature is Hangouts on Air which enables public broadcast of your video chat sessions. The new feature is easy to use, upon starting your hangout you’ll see the option to broadcast and record the session. Up to nine people can join your Hangout, and anyone can watch the live broadcast.

Google is also adding extras to Hangouts, including:

• Screensharing
• Sketchpad: for when you want to draw, doodle, or just scribble together
• Google Docs: for when you want to write, plan or present something with others
• Named Hangouts: for when you want to join or create a public hangout about a certain topic

Google notes that these extras are “still under construction” and users can try them out by starting a hangout and clicking on “Try Hangouts with extras.”

Lastly, Google is releasing a basic set of Hangouts APIs following the last week’s release of the first set of Google+ APIs.