Spaces, a tool for small group sharing
I really want to reserve judgement here...I want to wait and see how it actually functions, etc. But reading the description, (and my immediate reflex is to state that) it really looks extraneous, and definitely overlap for what G+ should/could be (or maybe is?).  Unless i'm mis-reading, it basically is the definition of a type of social network: 
    1. Have/find content. 
    2. Have a desire to share/discuss content with friends, acquaintances. 
    3. Trigger some function/feature to share on a time line of sorts, so friends, acquaintances can see/interact with said content.Not to sound so dismissive, (I hate to be critical for someone's hard work) but is that all that this new product is?  Basically another (centralized) social network?I think Google should instead develop an open source, federated protocol for maybe standardizing sharing via decentralized social networks.  This would open it up to myriad apps/clients. Oh sure, there are some out there...but having it (the protocol) associated to Google would give it some authority - and by extension attract more devs to its ecosystem; though still keep it open/free.  Side benefit, if Google sponsored and supported this federated protocol, they can begin to dive into the decentralized (dare i call it) movement.  They could then position themselves to provide search (their original strength)  across decentralized nodes, etc.  Owners of their own decentralized nodes could choose to "play with Google" or not.Who knows, maybe Google developing a federated protocol may not be ideal...but anything seems better than what this new product appears to be. (Seriously trying not to judge too soon though.  ;-)