Google+ moving to beta, drops invite requirement

After 12 weeks of field trial, Google’s upcoming social network Google+ is moving into beta, and users will no longer need to get invitations to join it. Vic Gundotra, senior vice president of engineering, said this was the 100th new feature of Google+ and will be rolled out globally. "For the past 12 weeks we’ve been in field trial, and during that time we’ve listened and learned a great deal. We’re nowhere near done, but with the improvements we’ve made so far we’re ready to move from field trial to beta, and introduce our 100th feature: open signups. This way anyone can visit google.com/+, join the project and connect with the people they care about," he said in a blog post. So far, he said the Google+ project is still in its "infancy," having been in field trial for just under 90 days. During the last 90 days, Gundotra said Google+ has had more than 100 new features, which include: