Despite a few sound glitches at the beginning of the broadcast, President Obama's Jan. 30 Google+ appearance went off smoothly, marking the the first time a sitting president (and he was sitting) participated in a Google+ Hangout.
Five Americans who had submitted questions in advance of the Hangout (reportedly more than 135,000 were submitted) were chosen to be on the broadcast with the president to ask those questions. And despite the high tech nature of the event, there were some touching exchanges, as relayed by MSNBC.com, between Obama and his new friends that made the Hangout more personal.
Google had to have been satisfied with the event, as it showcased its rapidly growing social platform and the Hangouts video chat feature. In fact, post-event online chatter has some people wondering if the event was more an advertisement for Google (and for the Obama reelection campaign) rather than an informative talk with the public.
Yet the ability to quickly round up a group of influencers and have a video dialogue was ably demonstrated by yesterday's event, so PR pros who have so far ignored or been hesitant to use Google+ have one more notable reason to take the plunge.
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