Anyone who has explored Google Plus is definitely familiar with the popular Google Hangouts feature. Google Hangouts is a free videoconferencing app. Google Hangouts is very casual and fun, a place where people can literally just hang out. Anyone you’ve shared a Hangout with on your Google Plus friends list will be able to join.

Over the last few weeks, the battle between google hangouts and facebook videochat is certainly getting tougher with google introducing a lot of features in order to stay ahead of its fierce rival. It is to be noted that at the time of its launch, youtube integration was missing in google plus.

You can play a YouTube video for all of your friends at the same time within a Google Hangout. Because of this, YouTube has added an option which will make it easier to jump into a Hangout directly from YouTube. The option can be found under the “Share” menu in YouTube. When you click on the feature, a browser window will pop up which will then prompt you to choose which Google Plus Circles you would like to share the Hangout (and then YouTube video) with. Click share, and then your Google Hangout will start.

There are likely to be many more features like these integrated into the Google Hangouts platform as Google’s main goal with this app is to make it a way for people to share experiences, just like in real life.

WiseStamp, an e-mail signature startup, has enhanced its Chrome and Firefox extensions Thursday with an e-mail application for Google Plus. This application allows you to incorporate your latest Google Plus status updates into your e-mail signature. Then your e-mail recipients can view your update and add you to their Circles from the e-mail.

The 2.7.1 release of WiseStamp included the Google Plus update. While Firefox users need to do a manual upgrade, Chrome users will be able to instantly install the new e-mail application. This is one of many e-mail signature features offered by WiseStamp.

All of the experts agree that the Google Plus iPhone app is going to be huge when it comes out on iTunes, the Apple app store. Many people are anxiously awaiting this release. More than ten million people have already signed up for the new social network. Google Plus is creating quite a buzz among many internet users.

One of the reasons Google Plus is really catching on and becoming popular is Google Circles. With Google Circles, people can easily control what content they are sharing with other people whereas it’s not as easy to do this on Facebook.

With all of the popularity Google plus is gaining, it’s becoming a real possibility of a threat to Facebook. Previously, no one thought Facebook would face such stiff competition so soon. To counter this, Facebook was trying to challenge Google in the search engine world by integrating search on its social network platform and was working on an advertising program that could potentially threaten Google Adwords and Google Adsense.

Google has already launched an application for Android phones that is now used by close to 35% of smart phone users in America. Google has additionally requested that Apple allow an application for Google Plus on its app store.

Apple, however, is testing the patience of Google. They have not responded or clearly stated when the new app will be approved. This could cause it to be more popular, though, as users are creating buzz around the mobile application and it is already in such high demand.

Many people already use their mobile phones for such social networking websites as Facebook and Twitter. When Google Plus is readily available in a more “mobile” form, the popularity of the new social network will likely increase.

Google Plus is already quite popular among many users. It could be that social networkers are starting to get tired of Facebook or that people need a change. There are a lot of cool features that people are loving so far about Google Plus like Google Circles, Google Sparks, and Google Hangouts. However, in spite of all of the cool features and how much users are enjoying this new social network, there is still something missing from Google plus, which is YouTube integration.

Google owns both Google Plus and YouTube. Users are able to participate in both services using their Google accounts. Many users assume that because of this, Google Plus should have better YouTube integration since both services are owned by Google.

For example, Google owns Picasa, a photo-sharing service, and it has been smoothly integrated into Google plus so that your Picasa photos now become your Google plus photos. Some users suggest that the same thing should be done with YouTube.

When you click the “videos” tab on Google plus, only the videos you have specifically uploaded to Google plus will show up. Your YouTube videos won’t. Many users think this should be changed. It’s also been suggested that profile links are a great place for YouTube videos.

If you want to connect your account to your other social networking pages, it gives you the following options: Flickr, LinkedIn, Yahoo, Quora, Yelp, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter, and Plaxo. Many users are wondering why YouTube isn’t one of those options, particularly since Google owns YouTube whereas Google doesn’t own Plaxo, Facebook, or Yahoo.

Users are able to create custom profile links, but it makes sense that YouTube should be more integrated with Google Plus. This lack of integration is leaving many users scratching their heads.

Starting this week, Google plus will no longer require that its users share their gender identification in a public fashion on their profiles. This move was in response to user feedback as reported by product manager, Frances Haugen, in a video update announcing the change. This is not surprising as Google has been tweaking its newest social network since its launch, and Google is very concerned with user input.

Haugen went on to say that the network  will describe users who have made their gender information private with the pronoun “they.” For example, it might say “Jesse updated their profile.” Haugen admits she knows this is not grammatically correct. However, given the English language’s lack of a gender neutral singular pronoun, this is the next best choice.

This move also makes more businesses and organizations likely to join Google plu

s. Social Statistics, an analytics site, says that Google plus is made up of 87 percent male users, 11.5 percent female users, and 1.5 percent “other” users. That category includes several organizations with profiles including The Washington Post, NBC News, and The Chicago Sun Times.

Google plus is giving users different gender options, which many people find to be a good thing

While Google has previously tried to create a social networking sect to rival Facebook, it has been unsuccessful…until now? We will definitely see! Google is about to publicly release the new Google plus, which has many different features and specialties that may make it a better social media site than Facebook. Certainly, many of the Google plus features are very attractive to future users.

Google circles:

One of the main Google plus specialties that sets Google plus apart from its rival, Facebook, is a feature called Google Circles. Google Circles allows you to sort through your online contacts into groups or actual “circles.” For example, you could have a group of work friends, a group of college friends, and a group for family members. You can also group people by how you know them. For example, if you’re in a real life group like a book club, a class, a church group, etc., you could possibly connect with all of those people and group them into one category using Google circles.

One of the reasons this is one of the most attractive Google plus features is because Facebook has gained a lot of criticism for not having easy ways to decide who sees what content among your friends. Also, setting up a new Circle, is a lot easier to do than setting up a List on Facebook. With Google Circles, it is much easier to control who sees what so that your boss doesn’t see those photos from the party Saturday night, and you don’t bore your non-work friends with inside jokes from the workplace.

A great thing about Google Circles, one of the new Google plus features, is that when you connect with a new person on Google plus, you will be able to easily drag him or her into whichever “circle” is appropriate. It’s also incredibly easy to manage the various circles on Google Plus.

Google sparks

Another one of the Google plus specialties that everyone is excited about is Google Sparks. Google Sparks assembles videos, articles, websites, and other content based on the interests that you have previously listed. Using your interests, you can click on Sparks and then browse content that you will more than likely find entertaining or intriguing. Google compares this to those articles that “Grandpa used to cut out of the paper and send to you.” With Google Sparks, you can also share the content that you find with your friends in the various Google Circles, with all of your friends on Google plus, or with the particular friends that share your interests.

Google hangouts

A different one of the Google plus specialties that people are getting excited about is a feature called Google Hangouts. With Google Hangouts, you can spontaneously “meet up” and “hang out” with your friends on the web for a group webcam chat. The way it works is you let your friends know that you are “hanging out.” Then they will have the option to join the hangout if they want to. From that point, several people can join, and then you could have a virtual group hangout. This is especially great for meeting up with long distance friends that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to just casually hang out with.

If you take a look at all of the Google plus features, it’s easy to see why people are getting excited about this new and upcoming social networking option. Will it be better than Facebook? Only time will tell. But it is definitely going to feature many options that Facebook currently lacks, which makes it very new and potentially exciting.