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Ever since Google+ launched this summer, it had one shining feature to hold over competitor Facebook: Hangouts. But this alone hasn't done enough; the social media site has yet to really take off. Google's hoping to change that. It knows it has a possible juggernaut: alongside the announcement of Google+ Beta (no more invitations needed!), the company rolled out nine more features, seven of which will enhance Hangouts to make it extra attractive.
The new and improved Hangouts now function on your mobile phone, support screen-sharing, sharing sketchpads and Google Docs, there's also a broadcast hangout function that lets people tune-in without joining in. Google is also releasing Hangout APIs--development tools, basically, for the function. "It enables you to add your own experiences to Hangouts and instantly build real-time applications, just like our first application, the built-in YouTube player," says the Google+ blog. "Here's where things get REALLY interesting," explains The New York Times's Jenna Wortham on her Tumblr. "The future of communication is coming and it might look something like this." Why exactly are these moves so ground breaking?