Google doesn’t have a social networking site like the majority of other sites we reviewed. You can use several networking and extra features from the “More Google Product” page like Blogger, Picasa (for photos), Talk (IM) and videos, but you can’t link back and forth between these features like a traditional social networking website.

You can establish a limited profile and make it public or private. If another member accesses your profile, they can see what groups you belong to and what discussions you have been involved in; some members may not like this feature. You can browse through Google Groups and access discussions between group members. Within a discussion window, you can reply to the author, send them an individual message or simply post your own comment to the discussion.

We conducted a test search in Google Groups and found several links to sexually explicit websites. Some links were posted by Group creators and others were posted in comments from Group members. The minimum age to join Google is 13. Some Groups are private and require members to be 18 to join; however, we found the explicit content in public Groups.

For the best social networking website that monitors their content and has a huge variety of features, see MySpace.