If you don’t know what Google Hangouts are then let me explain it really quickly. Google Hangouts is a group video chatting feature that is built into the recently launched Google+. In layman’s terms think Skype with multiple users in a call. They’ve built some awesome functionality into it. For example, there is only one large video stream and the software has intelligence to know who is talking and then place their video feed in the large view. 

Let me tell you, Google will revolutionize political debates and forums. We’re going to see it being used from the Presidential debates to TV shows. Incase you missed it, Newt Gingrich recently hosted a Google Hangout as a way of having a conversation with anyone who cared to join in. The results really amazed me and the Hangout went very smoothly. 

Here’s the video if you didn’t get a chance to see it:

I can guarantee you that we’re going to see a LOT more of these Hangouts happening. I think that Google or a third party will probably end up building a way for the Hangout creator to limit the types of people that join. I’m sure that they could get ugly really quickly without the ability to moderate who is joining. I guess that’s just a risk people that use Google Hangouts are going to take.