Get connected: Military-oriented services available for Google+, Facebook users - Military Technology, military gear, military gadgets - Military Times

Get connected: Military-oriented services available for Google+, Facebook users

Both the Facebook Nation and the growing ranks of Google+ users can take advantage of new services designed to help troops and veterans reconnect with buddies from old units.

Vet Connect is among the latest offerings from the Google mothership, part of its new Google For Veterans suite announced on Veterans Day.

Other military-oriented services include a new dedicated YouTube channel designed to foster conversation that “sheds light on the importance and complexity of service,” according to Google’s official blog. “If you have not served, this is a great place to offer your thanks by uploading a tribute video.”

Like a Classmates.com for the military, Vet Connect allows you to plug in your particulars — units, dates and places of service — and the site suggests people you may know and allows you to add them to your Google+ Circles.

In partnership with the Veterans Affairs Department, Google also announced a new Veterans Job Bank, which leverages the search giant’s Web-crawling prowess “to identify veteran-committed job openings.”

For the Facebook faithful, a new app created by mortgage lender Veterans United does basically the same thing. Dubbed Veterans United Connect, the app already has more than 54,000 users, says Levi Newman, the former Army sergeant who manages the service.

Two fee-based social networks — Together We Served and Vet Friends — already provided similar services.