Remember that +1 button Google introduced a few weeks back? Remember how nobody really knew what, exactly, +1-ing a site would do? Google+ is the company’s latest venture, a full-blown social media site aimed straight at Facebook, answers that question. This is something we’ve been talking about since roughly the Eisenhower administration so it’s nice to have something officially debut.

There are many components:

You can share updates, photos, and videos with specific “Circles,” which goes along with Google’s efforts to personalize the web.

There’s “Sparks”, which creates automatic pages based on your interests, like Reader but laid out differently.

“Hangouts” are video conference rooms for people in your Circles, “Huddles” is a group messaging app.

Also of note: there will be video and mobile chat functions that could woo Skype users to the Google side.

Handy list of features here.

So. Will people adopt Google + or will it be just like Orkut, Wave, and Buzz?