Google+. You may have seen a link for it during a Google search and wondered, "Is it FaceBook cloaked as Google?" or, "What would I need with another social media site?" At first blush, Google+ has many of the features you'd be familiar with from FaceBook: the ability to create a profile and update your status; the ability to create groups, called "circles" in Google+, of friends and associates; a chance to "follow" interesting people and organizations.

Google+ offers a few additional noteworthy features, though. One of the more useful and fun features is called "Hangout". With a high speed internet connection, this free video conferencing tool works pretty well and is useful for catching up with friends or even working with professional or academic peers to collaborate on projects.

Here's a short video introducing Google+ Hangouts. Since this video was created earlier this year, the "beta" version or "Hangouts with Extras" is no longer available but some of the features from that version have been integrated into the current release. Also, some of the features have moved around but this introduction will give you a good idea of how Hangouts works. The main features of chat, screen share, and document share have remained consistent.

Google+ Hangouts allow you to:

• Collaborate via video conferencing with one to nine other Google+ members.
• Share your desktop with them.
• View apps together such as YouTube or SlideShare (a presentation sharing tool).
• Share documents so that concurrent edits can be made as you work together.
• As of May, stream your Hangouts online via YouTube to anyone that just wants to watch or record the meeting.

You do need to have a Google+ account to access the Hangout feature and then the first time you enter or initiate a Hangout the "Google voice and video chat Installer" add-in will run[i]. Access to the hangout is provided using your circles.

Once you start your hangout, your invitees can join by clicking the link to do so in their Google+ news feed where the invitation will appear. Everyone who has a camera will appear on the screen with the speaker showing up in the main box. Attendees that do not have a camera can still view and listen to the meeting and participate in the chat feature which works like any other instant messaging tool. In the Google+ newsfeed, you'll be identified as being in a hangout.

In the picture below, there are three participants in the Hangout and they are collaborating on a document.

While collaboration with group members or peers from a distance are two obvious ways to use this tool, Google+ hangouts can be used for outreach and training as well. For instance, take a look at this blog entry about a DC librarian presenting about QR codes to a 2^nd grade class in Scottsdale, AZ. With every dollar preciously spent in education - the idea of bringing the field trip in house could be very appealing to educators and a great new way to create outreach from your library.

MLIS students here at Wayne State use Google+ hangouts as a way to meet weekly on in informal basis. Halsted Bernard, Wayne State's SOLIS Vice-President & Online Liaison, says she finds it to be less flaky than Adobe Connect and, although Adobe Connect allows for a higher number of participants, finds it has worked well for the purpose of getting together with other students.

You don't need to install a new piece of software, you probably already have a camera and microphone, and chances are you have someone out there you'd love to visit, make a face-to-face connection, or finish up a group project with. Why not try Google+ Hangouts?