Google+ is not just a social network. It is the future of Google itself, Google 2.0 - if you like. Lets take a look at why and how this is happening.
Why?
Google 2.0? Yep, +Vic Gundotra even said it himself:
Everything is being upgraded. We already have users. We’re now upgrading them to what we consider Google 2.0.
Search
+Google has always looked for ways to make its search results more relevant. Over the years it has created a number of ways to get you to what you're looking for faster. Google Instant is a fantastic example of this, and on average saves 2-5 seconds per search.
Now Google is taking search results to the next level. Google search has gone social. With the introduction of 'Search, plus Your World' Google can now show search results based on what your friends have recommended or shared on +Google+. People are generally more likely to click something if several of their friends have recommended it.
Content
Whilst this is a great way to make Google Search even better and let people find things even quicker, Google 2.0 has some other benefits as well. Google has become more than just a search engine, it provides many other services such as +Google Drive, +Google Play, +Android and +YouTube.
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| YouTube provides recommendations via Google+ |
Google+ has become of part of these to, and almost every Google service has or will be integrated with it in some way. Google+ is making people spend more time on Google itself as opposed to just searching to get somewhere else. It is no longer just an index of content, it now has some of that content itself.
In the not so distant future, every part of Google will be linked to Google+. Google+ is Google itself, essentially Google 2.0 as +Vic Gundotra said. This is why it's becoming even more important for people to become a part of Google+ as it continues to grow and be integrated into even more parts of Google.
One day, we might be able to access every part of Google from within Google+ itself.
How?
Google is slowly being linked together, and this is all thanks to Google+. The connections that you have made on Google+ can be used by its other services to serve better recommendations and more interesting content.
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| Google+'s public API's are still fairly limited at the moment |
I suspect Google+ does have a full API which is unreleased to the public so that Google can use it to integrate Google+ with all of their own services.
Wrap-up
So Google 2.0 is here, and its far from finished. Just how long we will have to wait is unknown - but what we do know is that so far roughly only 10% of planned Google+ features have rolled out. There's a lot more to come.
What would you like to see next from Google? Let us know in the comments below.
