Those who were put off by Google's previous failures in social networking, including and , will be surprised at the usefulness and simplicity of Google+. It's a worthy enough product that you'd do well to sign up as soon as it's widely available.

In some ways, Google+ is the anti-Facebook. Facebook is predicated on the idea that all "friends" are created equal -- that you want to have the same online relationship with your mother, your best friend since high school, your boss and that person you never met but whose invitation to be a Facebook friend you absentmindedly accepted. Post an update or a photo, and every one of your "friends" sees them -- unless you remember to use Facebook's box to specify who can or can't see the post.

Google+ takes the opposite tack. It lets you create "circles" of friends -- one for your family, one for friends, one for acquaintances, one for work, one for a book group and so on. That way, if you want to share plans for next Thanksgiving with your family and include photos of last Thanksgiving, you can share only with them, rather than with people you work with or people in your book group. You're put firmly in control of whom you communicate with and how you communicate with them.

[For additional views of Google+, check out our .]