Google+ rolling out Hangouts On Air worldwide! How will Facebook respond and other questions.
Hangouts have been pretty much the key reason why to hang out on Google+. And maybe it´s not such a great feature – video calling through cell phones and expensive 3G networks isn´t all that popular (I made 2 calls in my life). Sometimes you simply don’t feel like communicating via video.
But this time, Google+ means business. They launched Hangouts on air which is something that pretty much no other platform out there allows (some services try to do it but it´s a hassle to set-up and it doesn’t always work). So for Google, this is an ideal one-click service that brings people with a smaller or bigger following together.
Company webinars, small events, cooking shows, starting musicians with smaller concerts, corporate events – thats just a portion of things that Google+ Hangouts on Air can be used for.
The power of Hangouts on Air is definitely there – the question is, how will Facebook respond to this? Their deal with Skype is somewhat limited, as it doesn’t allow full integration with the site. The right step would be to add this functionality directly to Facebook, so both traditional users and page owners could utilize it.
I guess its a “wait and see” thing :)