Now anyone can join Google+ -- No invitation needed. Just visit www.google.com/+ and sign up TODAY!

Tuesday, September 20, 2011 – For the past 12 weeks, Google+, the new social networking project by Google, has been in a limited field trial, and only invited guests have been allowed to participate in the project’s development. As of today, Google+ moves from field trial to open beta, and anyone can join and connect with the people they care about.

To sign-up for Google+ today, just simply visit http://www.google.com/+

Google+ was designed to make sharing on the web more like sharing in the real world. Recognizing that not all relationships are created equal, the Circles feature allows users to selectively share information with different groups of people. Through a simple interface, users drag-and-drop their contacts into self-created Circles of friends, family, co-workers, etc. So just like in real-life, users can share one thing with their “college buddies,” another with their “parents,” and almost nothing with their “boss.”

Some other primary features of Google+ include: Hangouts, live group video chat with up to 10 people; Stream, the place to see updates from contacts in Circles; and Mobile, location sharing, group messaging and the option to immediately upload pictures taken on your Android device.

In the short time since the Google+ project was launched (June 28, 2011), over 100 improvements to the product have been made. That’s 8-9 product enhancements each week!

In addition to today’s consumer launch of Google+, additional features and enhancements were announced. They include: Enhanced Search in Google+, Hangouts from your Android device, streamed Hangouts On Air and Hangouts with extras, so you can easily collaborate with others through video chat using Google Docs or a sketchpad.

More information on these new roll-outs can be found here: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/google-92-93-94-95-96-97-98-99-100.html

The blog post that launched it all, can be found here: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/introducing-google-project-real-life.html

Google will be hosting its very first On Air Hangout with Will.i.am on Wednesday night, September 21. For more info, visit Will.i.am's profile on Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/109351399938437494273/posts

Disclosure: This b-roll package is provided by Google.

For more information, contact:

Dan Schwartzberg, News Broadcast Network, 646-839-5114, dschwartzberg@newsbroadcastnetwork.com

Katie Watson, Google, 650-253-0097, kwatson@google.com