By Jami Gibson

Google+ is rapidly expanding its reach since it was launched three months ago, and it will definitely give other social networking giants a run for their money. The new service seems to be everything that Facebook, Twitter, and other sites are not, especially in the realms of sharing and privacy. In addition to its user-friendly design, here are some of the features that Google+ offers:

Circles

This feature is a way to organize your social connections by groups (family, friends, acquaintances, etc). It’s a much easier way to categorize people as opposed to using complex list functions (Facebook), or sharing information with all followers (Twitter).

Photos

Photos will be uploaded to your profile album privately, with the ability to share them whenever you’d like. Pictures can be uploaded directly from an Android or iPhone as well, making the upload process faster and easier. Pictures shared within your circles will also be displayed for your viewing.

Chat

Chat allows users to type short messages to other online Google+ users. Messenger is the mobile chat feature for Android and iPhone.

Hangout

This platform allows users to video chat with up to nine other Google+ members.

Sparks

This is one of my favorite features of Google+. When you enter an interest into the Google+ search bar, click on Sparks to view trending news about your topic of interest. You can save these searches for a quick update on subjects that are important to you.

Google+, like Facebook, also gives its users the ability to “+1” posts and other information (similar to Facebook’s “like” feature), play games, tag photos, and comment on posts. These two services will be in fierce competition as each unrolls new features in the coming months.