In its quest to serve up a more compelling alternative to the all-conquering Facebook, Google has added games to its Google+ social networking project.
The search giant is now rolling out games in Google+, with the Games page appearing in all accounts shortly.
Aware that some users (us included) have been driven mad by inane game status updates in their Facebook in their news stream, Google have made it easy for users to ignore game scores and related trivia.
Here’s their blog posting:
My family has a games closet. Inside you’ll find a few decks of cards, two decades’ worth of board games and a Twister mat for those times when we’re feeling limber. Playing games is a great way for us to spend quality time with each other (and a little healthy competition never hurt anyone either).
Today we’re adding games to Google+. With the Google+ project, we want to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to the web. But sharing is about more than just conversations. The experiences we have together are just as important to our relationships. We want to make playing games online just as fun, and just as meaningful, as playing in real life.
That means giving you control over when you see games, how you play them and with whom you share your experiences. Games in Google+ are there when you want them and gone when you don’t.
When you’re ready to play, the Games page is waiting—click the games button at the top of your stream. You can see the latest game updates from your circles, browse the invites you’ve received and check out games that people you know have played recently. The Games page is also where your game accomplishments will appear. So you can comfortably share your latest high score—your circles will only see the updates when they’re interested in playing games too.
If you’re not interested in games, it’s easy to ignore them. Your stream will remain focused on conversations with the people you care about.
You’ll have a fun initial set of games to play with on Google+. Thanks to the developers who’ve worked with us to make them available:
If you’re a developer interested in building games for Google+, you can learn more on our new Google+ developer blog.
Today we’re starting to gradually roll out games in Google+. We look forward to making them fully available to everyone in Google+ soon. When you see a Games page in your account, please give games a try and send us feedback. Look for the “send feedback” button in the bottom right-hand corner of any page in Google+. Thanks for playing! Like the rest of the Google+ project, we’re just getting started.
