While the bulk of us have been enjoying Google+ from our personal accounts for a few months now, those who exclusively use Google Apps (GApps) have been left in the dark... until today. Google+ is now open to all GApps users, and it even brings some new features for some users.

Additional Sharing Options

When sharing posts on Google+, you have the choice of sharing content with specific users, specific Circles, or publicly. With G+ for GApps users, there is another option: sharing with your organization. This is enabled by default -- no need to create a circle just for your coworkers, fellow students, or anyone else in your organization.

Hangouts Extras

At this point, most of us have hopped into a Hangout at least once to chat it up with friends or acquaintances face-to-face. For GApps users, Google has taken this  a step further, bringing GDocs integration into hangouts. This way, you can easily see and speak with others while collaborating on a project. Rather a good idea.

G+ for Colleges

On top of all the other additional features, G+ is also now available for entire college campuses that utilize GApps for Education:

  • Abilene Christian University
  • American University in Cairo (Egypt)
  • Arizona State University
  • AT Still University
  • Boise State University
  • Central Piedmont Community College
  • Dublin City University (Ireland)
  • ESSEC Business School (France)
  • Leeds Metropolitan University (United Kingdom)
  • Loughborough University (United Kingdom)
  • Saint Louis University
  • Strathmore University (Kenya)
  • Universidad Panamericana (Mexico)
  • University of Ferrara (Italy)
  • University of Maryland Baltimore County
  • University of Minnesota
  • University of Notre Dame
  • University of Pavia (Italy)
  • University of Portsmouth (United Kingdom)
  • University of Washington
  • Vanderbilt University
  • Wake Forest University

...and more

For those who've already started using G+ with their personal account and would prefer to switch over to their GApps account, Big G is working on a migration tool which will help users move their data from one account to another. That way you don't have to start over from scratch. The tool isn't ready just yet, but should be ready to go in a few weeks. In the meantime, you can go ahead and start using your GApps account and migrate your data once the tool is available.

[Google Enterprise Blog]