What's your opinion on Google+ recent revamp? Tell me!




I’ve been in and out of Google + for some time. I never felt very comfortable using it and I preferred to use Facebook. Facebook is the real network. Just my opinion.  But last September I gave up Facebook. For several reasons I felt I needed a break from it and decided to give Google + a go once more. And just when I was feeling more at home it happened - this week Google announced a big revamp! I am still adjusting to it. They are still working on it so what we see isn’t final. I am not sure if the change is a good or a bad one because I don't have enough experience as a user to evaluate it. But I am finding it a bit strange!

Since September I am only using Google +. I am trying to make connections with people with the same interests as myself - arts, design, photography, movies, books, music, birds...I guess I like what most people do. Birds are one of my recent interests. 
Almost immediately I found a lot of photographers interested in birds. That was awesome.  I made a few good virtual friends on Facebook. I would like to get the same result on Google +. I use social networks to promote my illustration work but I also like to use it to chill out and discover new things and interesting people.

I also found new buddies from Zazzle - I joined Communities of people that work at POD.  I also joined DIY, art, Nature, and animal photography communities but I was very disappointed because people share a lot of photos without a source – no name for the photographer or the piece or place or the animal that has been photographed. I like to watch a photo and to know what I’m watching. 

Another cool aspect I found in Google + is Collections. I did not know about collections. They are much like Pinterest. We can gather content around one topic. It’s a cool feature. I am still exploring it.

G+ team says changes made Google+ simpler. They say it’s easier to post, search, connect, and keep up with great content. This is what G+ says but I am not getting that sensation – maybe because I haven’t used the new version enough. One good thing is that Google+ is now more mobile-friendly – it’s more responsive meaning it doesn’t matter if you´re using a computer screen or a mobile phone, you will get the best experience out of it anyway.

One thing that’s a bit confusing is Google pages. I have some Pages there the same way I have some Pages on Facebook. Lately, I wasn’t pleased with Facebook Pages’s performance. But I am not convinced that Google+ pages are any better. On Facebook, I used Pages for product promotion and kept my profile clean. At first, I did the same on G+. I created product banners and product descriptions for Pages. But G+ profiles are often used for product promotion and I moved my promotion to that stream. I find it confusing. I would like to keep things separate.  I am not sure if the new G+ will keep pages or not.

What's your opinion on Google+ recent revamp? Tell me!




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