Google + Gets Overhaul

Google + got an overhaul today which gives it a completely different look than before. The young social network is competing with Facebook and Twitter and it showed as the new look started to resemble and gain some feats of the other two networks. Here is a brief overview of what has changed.

Hangouts has been emphasized by the addition of a creation button at the top right corner and the creation of its own section. Remember how all of the tabs of Google + were next to the search engine? Not anymore, now they take the left side.

Notably, there is a Trending section on the top right of the new Google+ home page which takes a page directly from Twitter’s handbook.

You might also notice changes to your profile – and pages layout. Facebook released its timeline not too long ago which came with cover pictures and a layout that focused on the top right of the profile. Here are the new Google + profiles for people and pages.

Google + also made an overhaul of how the streams and posting works. The menus on top – You will see All, Friends… – will not only show people in that stream, it will change the post options automatically to that circle.

Posts now emphasize the +1, reshare and Hangouts options with the new look.

Getting to pages used to be a hassle but your profile menu will now let you toggle your pages as well – much like how this is managed in Facebook.

The initial tour will highlight the changes and reteach you the basics if you are already on Google+, but for novice users, it seems to be a brief and basic introduction to Google + which is very easy to learn and intuitively similar to Facebook.

Apart from the looks and some of the layout, and some of the new features, not much has changed with Google + and many of the same features it had before are the same here. If you want to get to better know Google +, you can read our initial guides which for the most part should still be compatible with this new version of Google +.

Do you like the new Google +? Do you find some of the changes to be very similar to Facebook’s and Twitter’s existing features? Let us know. Follow us at: Twitter, Facebook, Google +.