Mountain View, California — In an attempt to more directly compete with social media networking behemoth Facebook, search giant Google’s budding social networking site, Google+, just less than a year, on Wednesday unveiled a major face-lift that makes it feel a lot more like its arch rival Facebook.
While introducing a fresh look to Google+, which has not made as big a splash as it was anticipated, now emphasizes its commitment to competing on aesthetic grounds in addition to technical merits, despite boasting 170 million members.
Google senior VP of social Vic Gundotra suggests design is an essential ingredient for Google+. “We think you will find it easier to use and nicer to look at, but most importantly, it accelerates our efforts to create a simpler, more beautiful Google,” said Gundotra in a blog post.
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One of the initial changes to pop out is a new Navigation bar nestled on the left. In place of static icons toolbar at the top, the redesign swings them to the left side of the main screen, where users can drag apps up or down to create the order they want and hover over certain apps to reveal a set of quick actions. The aesthetically designed Navigation bar includes the usual icons for Home, Profile, Photos, and more.
You can also personalize this bar, as well as modify the order of the various icons to drag your favorite ones to the top. You can also remove icons for features you do not use or add other icons from a “More” group. And you can hover your mouse over an icon to display a menu of quick actions.
“Simply put, we are hoping to make sharing more appealing by making it more evocative,” Gundotra wrote in a company blog post. “You know that feeling you get when a piece of art takes your breath away, or when a friend stops by with unexpected gifts? We want sharing to feel like that, every single time.”
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However, her further stated, “It us still early days, and there is plenty left to do, but we are more excited than ever to build a seamless social experience, all across Google,” Gundotra, wrote in a blog post.
He also explained, “Taken together, these powers make it easier to access your favorites, and to adapt your preferences over time,” Gundotra wrote. “We have also built the ribbon with the future in mind, giving us an obvious (and clutter-free) space for The Next Big Feature, and The Feature After That.”
Nevertheless, Google pretty fiercely appears to be tweaking its products to appeal to that same demographic, people who value refinement. The updates will roll out to all Google+ members in the next few days.
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