Google Plus

After more than a year of leaks and denials Google finally took the wraps off its big social network today.
It's big, it's ambitious, and it looks a lot like a lot of other things. If you can't make it through the lengthy blog post, here's an easy way to understand it:

• Circles = Facebook. Share content with your friends, only you don't have to share everything with everybody at once. You can pick and choose specific groups.

• Sparks = Google Reader. Subscribe to news and information sources and get a constantly updated feed.

• Hangouts = Tinychat. Live video conversations with multiple friends at once.

• Instant Uploads = Microsoft Kin (and iCloud, and...). Snap photos with your phone and they're automatically uploaded to an online storage spot on Google Plus.

• Huddle = GroupMe. Group chat

None of these are bad ideas. But they're not groundbreaking either.