As new changes bombard internet life like meteor showers in August, its easy to become confused about all the various Google platforms.

Google, Google Plus, Google Plus Local, Google Hangouts are they different? The same? Or what?

Google was a search engine, founded in 1998 by Sergey Brin and Larry Page. It was originally called Backrub.

Its current traffic ranking by authority statistics site, https://www.tradebit.com, is number one both globally and in the United States.

Other search engines sprang up like mushrooms but it wasnt long before Google had a stranglehold on the web, setting itself up via powerful algorithms as the arbiter of website quality and importance.

Enter social networking, via such early platforms as MySpace and Yahoo.

Add Facebook, which Took Over the World and Twitter, which wasnt far behind and suddenly Google found itself less influential.

It decided to compete, changing algorithms to align its criteria with social networks.

It created Google Plus, its answer to Facebook (with several not-so-successful incarnations along the way, which it diligently learned from and re-structured to suit its users).

Table of Contents

What Is Google Plus?
Google Hangouts
Google Plus Circles
Google Plus Pages
Google Plus Local
Creating a Perfect Profile
Making Connections
Your Google Plus Badge