Like many others over that last few days I have been very interested in the release of Google + Google's latest venture into the social network space. Unfortunately, though I managed to get a login to the preview of the service, they closed off invites before I managed to invite enough people to give it a worthwhile test. However, it looks impressive – the interface is a beautiful piece of web engineering – I am looking forward to seeing this merged into our Google Apps account.
The multi-person video conference facility looks particularly impressive. It will be interesting to look at the potential impact of this on traditional multiparty videoconferencing in the likes of the Virtual Learning Network. I think schools now more than ever need to question ongoing investment in $15 – $20k worth of specialist VC equipment.
