Google+ Events Launches at Google I/O

Posted by: Alex Peerenboom

Today at their I/O developers conference, Google made a multitude of announcements including their own tablet, wireless entertainment system, and also some updates to Google+.  One of those features is Google+ Events, which brings some exciting new dimensions to event planning tools online.

Google+ Events

The new Google+ Events feature starts with the ability to create unique invites through what they call “cinemagraphic themes.” The invitations are designed with unique animations and can include a personalized greeting from YouTube.  That’s kind of cool to create visually appealing invitations, but other features are even nicer.  First, Google+ Events integrates directly with Google Calendar, perfect for people who manage their days with Google products.

Second, Google+ Events stands out with photos. During the keynote presentation, they mentioned that traditional event planning tools end at a certain point. You make the invite, send it out, they respond…and that’s it. But what happens after? Photos that might get taken end up scattered across the internet from different people. Google+ Events tries to fix that with Party Mode.

Everybody in attendance using Google+ can enter Party Mode and take pictures which get uploaded directly to the Events page in real time. As more guests join and post photos, more pictures will instantly appear.  Even after the event is over, you’ll see everyone’s photos and comments in chronological order.

Will You Join Google+?

As the manager of Formic’s Google+ page, I enjoy testing all of the new features. But many businesses are still hesitant to join. There is a lot of talk about G+ being a ghost town. But as this post over at ReadWriteWeb mentions, there are different ways to think of a ghost town. If you say that you don’t use G+ because nobody else does, that probably includes your competitors.  First-mover advantage anyone?

Hangouts is a great way to host free video conferences, which some businesses are using to reach their customers in new ways. Circles allows you to segment your G+ followers into individual groups and provide tailored content to each one. The rel=author and rel=publisher tags help enhance your search results. Now there’s Google+ Events.

That’s a lot of great features for businesses to take advantage of, so if you’re not on Google+…what’s stopping you?