Google+ (pronounced and sometimes written as Google Plus, sometimes abbreviated as G+) is a social networking and identity service, operated by Google Inc.
The service launched on June 28, 2011, in an invite-only "field testing" phase.The following day, existing users were allowed to invite friends who were over 18 years of age to the service to create their own accounts. This was suspended the next day due to an "insane demand" for accounts. On August 6, each Google+ member had 150 invites to give out, but on September 20, 2011, Google+ was opened to everyone 18 years of age or older without the need for an invitation. After Google+ went public, users registered to Google with an age under 18 were unable to sign up for Google+. Google plans to open up Google+ to all users over the ages of 13 after proper safety features are added.
Google+ integrates social services such as Google Profiles and Google Buzz, and introduces new services identified as Circles, Hangouts and Sparks. Google+ is available as a web site, and will be available as a desktop application, and is already available as a mobile application, but only on the Android and iOS operating systems. Google has launched an API platform for developers. ources such as The New York Times have declared it Google's biggest attempt to rival the social network Facebook, which had over 800 million users in 2011.
At the initial launch, Google Apps mail profiles could not be used on Google+ due to lack of support for Google Profiles. On October 27, Google announced Google Apps support for Google+ users when the service was manually enabled by the Google Apps domain administrator.