Google has announced updates and changes to Google+. These are being rolled out now.
In several blog posts, the company said the improvements are aimed at making it easier to focus on the features that customer feedback has identified as being the most useful.
Feedback
The company says that users of Google+ found two features particularly useful, namely Communities and Collections.
In light of this, a fully redesigned Google+ now puts these two aspects “front and centre”, according to the company’s blogs.
Mobile-friendliness has also been improved so that access via web, Android and iOS will all offer a fast and consistent experience that isn’t screen size dependent. This comes courtesy of a new homestream that allows quick browsing through content via a fast and simple UI.
Communities
Communities boasts an average of 1.2 million new joins per day, according to Google’s own figures.
One of the blog posts explains: “Domain-restricted Communities are a popular way for organisations to share content and ideas amongst teammates, with the peace of mind that they’ll stay private.”
The post goes on to point out that a global fashion brand has used Communities to “inspire conversation about products and branding among employees across the world”, and uses a Japanese startup, which is keeping staff up to date as a vaccine is created, as another example of how the feature works in practice.
Collections
Although it launched just five months ago, the Collections feature is growing even faster than Communities. Collections allows Google+ users to keep all related content in one place, making it easier to browse.
Earlier in the year, the company dedicated a week on the Google for Work G+ page to their System Admins. Subsequently, all the content was placed together in one Collection as an easy way to collate all the posts.
The blog post concluded: “Creating great products that solve real needs and make life easier for people is something Google is always striving for. Your feedback got us this far, as we continue to refine Google+, we’d love to keep hearing from you. In the meantime, we look forward to seeing how today’s changes help kickstart even more conversations around everything from Zombie Cats to Vintage Calculators.”
