Google+ may look a lot like other social networks where we've participated before, but it's not a product in isolation. Every piece has been designed to help push the industry in a new direction of interoperability and selective sharing. Edd Dumbill of O'Reilly gets it and breaks it down.
Much of the power of Google+ becoming the social backbone comes from intelligent focus on standards, from people who have pushed for standards long before they joined Google - helping move the industry from the inside out. Read the article.
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