Google officially announces Google Games, + developer platform. Zynga already on board

Seth Weintraub

Google today announced that the Google Plus platform is also a gaming platform.

Today we’re adding games to Google+. With the Google+ project, we want to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to the web. But sharing is about more than just conversations. The experiences we have together are just as important to our relationships. We want to make playing games online just as fun, and just as meaningful, as playing in real life.

That means giving you control over when you see games, how you play them and with whom you share your experiences. Games in Google+ are there when you want them and gone when you don’t.

Facebook stalwart and Google fundee Zynga is already on the list having built an app called Poker.  So are Bejeweled and Angry Birds(below).

As an added bonus, google today announced the Google+ Developer Platform so that other game makers can build their wares into the Plus platform. Read more

Browse Google+ on the desktop with Tab for Google+

Jake Smith

Tab for Google+ is an app available on the Mac App Store that brings Google+’s web functionality to the Mac desktop. The app is available for free and offers just about every feature plus.google.com offers — except Hangouts. Upon logging in via your Google account, you’ll be greeted with the main sections of the app: Streams, Photos, Circles, Profile and Notifications.

The sections follow suit with the functionality of the website. Streams and Photos curates content from the people you’re following. Circles allows you to see your list of circles and the content coming in from each specific one. Lastly, Notifications let’s you know what’s going on with your account.

Of course, this application won’t replace Google+’s website, rather it’s just a nice app that sits in your applications bar to view while you work. Perhaps if the website is more your thing, check out Google+ for Mac which is essentially just a browser window. We’re hearing the developer is working to make it native though. Check out another screenshot after the break:

Download Tab for Google+ – Download Google+ for Mac

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Google+ Cooking School is a cooking show hosted via Hangouts

Jake Smith

We’ve showed how Google+ Hangouts has been used for politicians to connect with citizens and to host live concerts, but Lee Allison has another cool take. Lee Allison, a technology consultant in New York, hosts a hour long cooking show on Google+, called Google+ Cooking School, three times a week. He uses multiple camera angles to show his viewers exactly what he is cooking up. Allison posts the ingredients for the food he is making on the show, and invites his viewers to cook with him — or he says you can just sit back and relax with a glass of wine.

Since Google+ Hangouts does have limits to only 10 people and people constantly popping in and out, Allison is moving part of his show to WebEx. Though he will continue his show on Hangouts, he will charge $20 for his show on WebEx dubbed The Social Skillet.

It’s cool to see all of these different takes on what’s arguably Google+’s best feature. (via The New York Times) Read more

Google+ on track to pass Twitter and LinkedIn

Jake Smith

Bloomberg has discovered Google’s recently released social network Google+ is gaining ground fast — with 13% of U.S. males registered. Interestingly, Bloomberg doesn’t think Google+ will lose much traction, because they predict the service will gain 9% of U.S. males within the next year — making a grand total of 22%. If Google+ does gain this much ground they can pass LinkedIn and Twitter to become the second most popular social network, in only a year.

Google Inc.’s new social-networking service may grow to claim 22 percent of online U.S. adults in a year, passing Twitter Inc. and LinkedIn Corp. to be the second- most-used social site after Facebook Inc., a survey found.