In an attempt to help business colleagues collaborate more easily and getting things done faster, Google has announced some new features for its social networking app targeting business centric users.The search giant is offering a full preview mode for its Apps customers, who will be able to use the business features of Google+ for free through the end of 2013.
Now Google Apps users will be able to make use of Restricted posts, a feature that keeps posts shared by an organisation private, thereby disabling re-sharing of posts. But users will have the discretion to share a post with particular partners or colleagues outside the organisation if they will.
Privacy is a key element for any organisation and that's why Google+ now gives users administrative controls to set company-wide defaults for post restrictions. These can also be set for just having private meetings within the company.
Hangouts has been a prominent feature of Google+ allowing multiple users to video chat at a time. Now organisations can make use of this feature directly from Gmail. Colleagues can view, share and even edit documents together via Hangout.An additional advantage is that they will also be able to add a hangout to a calendar event allowing attendees to join the meeting directly from the invite or Calendar entry.
Apart from these new features, Google also plans to roll out a mobile version of Google+ for enterprise users with greater administrative controls.