Thought you already had enough on your plate with updating your Facebook, Twitter and (if you’re really old school) MySpace accounts?

Well, it seems you may soon be adding another activity to your ever-growing list of things to do in the form of Google+, a new social networking site that’s seen in industry circles as a direct rival to Mark Zuckerberg’s 750 million-users-strong giant.

The site is based around building social circles, allowing users to decide which groups of friends they share their status updates or content with. 

Announcing the launch on its official blog on June 28, Google said that + is aimed at making online sharing easier – even arguing that the current model is “broken” and needs to be fixed.

Among the other tools users are getting to grips with include Sparks, Hangouts, Steam and Huddle.

“We’d like to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to software. We want to make Google better by including you, your relationships, and your interests. And so begins the Google+ project,” it said. 

The launch is only currently in Beta and it seems you’ll need an invite from someone who’s already using it to sign up. As of July 12th the site has “temporarily exceeded [its] capacity", so it looks like many will have to wait a while to find out what all the fuss is about, invite or not.

MEC View:

“It’s too early to say whether Google+ could be a serious challenger for Facebook, but its features certainly seem pretty interesting. Only a few short years ago some questioned the point of Facebook when MySpace already existed, so it’ll certainly have given Mark Zuckerberg and co something serious to think about.”