If you’re fabulous enough to have received an intive to the exclusive\u00a0Google+, the latest social media splash, you might also like to know that their Hangouts feature offers an easy way to set up\u00a0simple home surveillance monitoring.<\/p>\n
Google+ Hangouts offers\u00a0face-to-face video chats with several of your friends at the same time.\u00a0 But what if you\u00a0were just using two of your own personal accounts\u00a0with one of\u00a0the account’s webcam trained on an area of interest?\u00a0<\/p>\n
That’s what a Lifehacker <\/a>reader did and\u00a0explained the process and\u00a0results of using Google+ Hangouts with a webcam to keep watch over your house<\/a>:<\/p>\n You can use Google Hangouts as an on demand remote camera viewer. First, create a second Google Account, and put the alternate account in its own circle. Then, start a hangout with just that circle. When you want to checkup on how everything’s going along in your house, you can just join the hangout with your alternate account, and you should see what’s happening. Of course, for more complicated and long term camera solutions, you would need some specific software. This is just a no additional software approach to quickly checking up on your house while you are away.<\/em><\/p>\n Lifehacker tester\u00a0Whitson Gordon notes that this will work even with the screensaver on, just be sure to turn the computer’s “Sleep” function off if you want continual surveillance access.<\/p>\n