Google+ has been launched to a small group of users and invitees enables people to post status updates, share links and upload photos – sound familiar?

To differentiate from Facebook, Google+ allows users to communicate within separate groups of their online friends. Instead of posting an update to everyone, Google+ lets users to create "circles" or groups, such as a user's university friends, work colleagues or family.

"Today, the connections between people increasingly happen online. Yet the subtlety and substance of real-world interactions are lost in the rigidness of our online tools. In this basic, human way, online sharing is awkward. Even broken. And we aim to fix it." said Vic Gundotra, Google's senior vice president of engineering.