New changes revealed for Google+

Google+ has struggled since its launch to become a huge competitor on social media. The network has grown to 360 million active users, but is still overlooked by many social media users. To help improve the Google+ experience, Google has rolled out 41 new and improved features that it hopes will drive more engagement from current users and bring in many new ones.

These are some of the changes that Google has made to improve the social network:

Multicolumn current

The flow of social networks acquires more dimensions with the incorporation of the new multi-column format. Users will see larger images to match the larger cover photos that were recently submitted. It’s also a lot more lively, thanks to features like “share what’s new,” which allow you to easily share the latest content from your stream.

Photo editing and storage functions

Google+ offers users new and more powerful tools for editing photos within the web. These include the new “awesome auto” feature that can animate your photos that have been taken in fast bursts. Automatic enhancement features help turn your average images into something amazing by using tonal balance, skin softening, contrast, and color correction tools.

There is also a new “Highlight” feature that scans all your images to find the best ones according to a special algorithm, as well as the image quality and who is in the photos. This can help you save time when you’re ready to upload photos by ranking the best ones for you and adding them to your image files. It’s like a personal photo assistant!

Use of hashtag

Hashtags have long been used on Twitter and Tumblr to help users see trends on social media and make content easier to discover. Google+ has also embraced the hashtag and is now introducing “related hashtags,” a feature that will allow users to dig deeper into topics of interest. Users can click on a hashtag in a post and they will be able to discover other posts that contain relative hashtags.

Hangouts go mobile

The free group video calling service that has really set Google+ apart from other social networks is mobile ready. Google will launch a new Hangout app. It will combine photos, live video and text and will be available for iOS and Android devices. Users will also be able to view registered chats. This makes the tool available to users even while on the go, making it a valuable tool for business owners and marketers.

Are you excited about the new changes to Google+? What features are you most pleased to see coming?