Google has unveiled Google+, the company’s latest attempt to go social (and go after Facebook). The folks at Mashable got a sneak peak and give an initial assessment of the highlights of the new social network. You can also take a tour with Google.

Just as interesting as the network itself are the lengths that Google went to to make sure word of it didn’t get out before the big unveiling today.

Reuters reports that they were hoodwinked into thinking that they would be meeting at the Google offices on Friday to talk about YouTube. But when they got there, Google’s head of social Vic Gundotra and VP of product development Bradley Horowitz were there to give them the lowdown on the new social network. Sneaky!

Reuters notes Google+’s circular structure and says it’s technically called The Google Plus Project “to make clear that’s what’s available now is only the first installment of several more features it says it has in the pipeline.” It’s only available now to a small number of people doing a “field trial.”

Also interesting, the Horn Group tweeted about another site from Google, What do you love?, that gives you massive amounts of info about the topic you fill in to answer. We put in “pilates” and got photos, books, a blog search, and, of course, links to Google sites that can provide that info.