Google Space

In the recent update for Hangouts app , text messages and Hangout conversations from the same contact are neatly merged into a single thread, allowing you to send notes via either method. And to be able to  distinguish  between texts and hangouts,  the two sources are color-coded, and you can separate them any time you'd like. There's also a split in the contacts list for quick searching: folks you chat with on Hangouts and phone contacts that you keep to SMS. For easy access, there's a new home screen widget and improved quality for video calls.

Google+ post pages look different: posts are now moved to the right and there's a huge box that shows the name of the page or author and the number of followers. The new layout encourages people to follow pages and Google+ users, but makes posts more difficult to read. Here's an example pf a post from Gmail's Google+ page. SOURCE: Google Operating system

Comments are, at least in some ways, the life blood of web sites. After all, without readers and their input then we would not be here at all. There are a number of ways to bring in those comments to a site -- the built-in WordPress feature or a third-party service like Disqus. Now, Google is jumping into that game, as it seems to do with every other game these days. It might sound confusing, but it’s a pretty natural integration. “For example, if there’s a public Google+ discussion about one of your blog entries, those comments and replies will also appear on your Blogger blog,” writes Google engineer Yonatan Zunger today on the company blog. “This way you can engage with more of your readers, all in one place.” Here’s a quick look at how it all comes together:

Google rolled out a brand new feature for its Google+ social network today, which brings the ability to form groups based around a specific interest, organization, or passion. The new Google+ Communities feature is very similar to the staple Facebook Groups feature, which lets you communicate with a group of people in a more specific way than you would by sharing information broadly with the entire social network. It’s also a feature that’s been lacking on Google+ since its initial launch. “What’s been missing  … are more permanent homes for all the stuff you love: the wonderful, the weird, and yes, even the things that are waaay out there,” wrote Google SVP Vic Gundotra in a recent  blog post . “With Google+ Communities there’s now a gathering place for your passions.” So what’s the difference between Google+ Communities and Facebook Groups? Well, there are a few notable things, including the ability to start a Google Hangout video chat with the community and shari...

Google today released an Android version of the sophisticated photo-editing application Snapseed, a product it picked up in its   acquisition   of photography software developer Nik Software. The company also updated the Snapsneed app for iOS to make it free. Snapseed’s mobile application features auto correct and filters, just like Facebook-owned Instagram, but is more robust in the photo-editing department and not a social network for following friends’ or celebrities’ captures. The application won last year’s Apple’s iPad app of the year award. Snapseed for Android , released Thursday, comes with all the same goodies previously found on iOS, including the ability to selectively adjust photo elements such as focus, brightness, saturation, contrast, and white balance. Both the newly free iOS app and the brand-new Android app come with one-click sharing to Google+, of course. The releases are all about enhancing Google’s position in the hierarchy of places to co...

Google+ hangouts gets new makeover with a new sidebar  It is no secret anymore that hangouts is one of the popular and most used feature on Google+. Given its wonderful features and being FREE, there is no doubt that it is widely used for online meetings by people around the world. But hangouts have a 10 user maximum limit and this doesn't work well for some official meetings. So, Google+ team took note of it and made some changes.

500 million Google+ total users as of December 2012 Google+ hits another milestone today by crossing 500 million+ total users and 135 million+ active users. Back in September when we reported about 400 million+ total users , we also predicted the network has the potential to reach around 450 – 500 millions users by end of the year 2012. To our’s and many others surprise, Google+ has way ahead reached that mark with still a month to go. official statistics: -  Google+ has over 500 million+ users -  135 million+ active users -  235 million active users across Google products   For a network of this young (with just 17 months since launched as beta in June 2011) this is a remarkable achievement. We wish more success in months and years to come. Congrats Google+! You did it and deserve it!!

Yesterday, Google announced a new feature for Google+.  when you share links from Google Drive, people in your circles will be able to flip through presentations, open PDFs, play videos, and more, right from your Google+ stream. Here's the official  announcement on Google+ . I'm sure we'll see lots of people making good use of this new feature. Beyond the obvious business collaboration and sharing benefits, it's a great chance for Google+ users to get even more creative with their posts. Have fun trying it out and let us know if you have any tips on how to best use the new feature in the comments.

Google bought “photography first” mobile app developer  Nik Software  today, meaning it now owns Instagram competitor Snapseed. But while Snapseed gives Google those sepia filters, it also provides an arsenal of photography apps the company can use for its social network, Google+. Snapseed  raises eyebrows because it’s a competitor to Instagram, which Facebook bought for $1 billion in April. Instagram is wildly popular and was already showing signs of its dominance when Facebook picked it up. At the time Instagram had roughly 30 million users. Today, it has over 100 million users, according to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. The social network wrapped up the deal last week after the Federal Trade Commission OK’d it, which may be putting pressure on Google to compete. Snapseed, of course, doesn't have the following or fame of Instagram. It’s more likely that Google wants Nik Software, which creates a number of different photography apps,...

400 million total users as of september 2012 according to latest official statistics from google Google+ has reached today another new remarkable milestone of  400 million+ total users  as of september 2012 according to a new official statistics released today. Google+ total users Sept 2012 +Vic Gundotra, VP of Engineering at Google has broke the news that Google+ is now 400 million+ total users strong and 1 out of every 4 is active on the network. I.e. over 100 million users post, share and actively use the network. This undoubtedly makes it is the second largest social network of all times only next to its rival Facebook. Congrats Google+ on this remarkable achievement. Part of the announcement was the acquirer of Nik Software, the makers of the popular SnapSeed mobile photo editing app (an Instagram rival). With Snapseed developers soon going to be part of Google+ team, we can expect tremendous changes to photo editing in Google+ (mobile app and the...

Google has  added new business-focused features  to its Google+ social network including restricted posts, video Hangout integration with Google Calendar, and better administrative controls. Google+ has mostly had a consumer-facing focus since its launch more than a year ago. But now it’s beginning to show that it’s committed to businesses using the service now as part of the Google Apps suite. Google seems to think if a business is already using Google Docs and Gmail, then that business might as well start using Google+ for video chat and social networking. “ Today we’re launching an initial set of Google+ features designed specifically for businesses, and we’re excited to move into a full preview mode for Apps customers ,” a Google spokesperson said . “ During this preview period, organizations that have gone Google will be able to use the business features of Google+ for free through the end of 2013 while we continue to add more features and administrative c...

New google+ iphone app is gorgeously beautiful (Images: Appstore) Google+ on the web had a major redesign overhaul few weeks ago. Now it’s time for the mobile apps to get better. Few days back mobile team released a all new updated google+ iphone app on the app store. This release is the most beautiful, gorgeous and addictive google+ iphone app since the original release of the app. Features and improvements: Quick immerse experience immediately after the launch of the app Crispy fonts, friendly home screen and large profile pictures The stream is very easy on the eyes, nice overlays, gradients and other visual cues Quick and easier +1 and share Posts, articles and text look great Beautiful and immerse hangout experience Gorgeous video and photo screens Easily noticeable notifications, search and settings Highly responsive app with great improvements on performance Overall experience is that the app is so gorgeous you don’t want to close or quit the app. It ma...

Google+ was built around sharing content and that's its main purpose, so many Google products started to provide a unified sharing experience powered by Google+. Gmail allows you to share image attachments with other Google+ users by clicking the "Share" link, but what about the embedded images from a message? Now you can share them by mousing over the images and clicking the "share" button. How to insert images into a Gmail message? Just drag and drop the images from your favorite file manager. It should work in the latest versions of Chrome, Safari and Firefox, assuming that you haven't disabled the rich text mode.

After the recent  Google+ redesign  and major UI overhaul one of the things we kept hearing for G+ users was the  font color in comments  was too light and unreadable. The good news is they have listened and updated with a darker font color (refer image below). Google+ comments with new updated font color (Images: Google+) This change makes it beautiful and easily readable. Thanks for listening Google+ team .

Google+ released its updated and brand new look few days ago. The change was welcomed by the google+ community and was well received. However the fluid layout redesign has caused some unhappiness among some google+ users due to the whitespace that appears in between the trending column on the left and the fixed chat column on the right. You wont see or experience whitespace unless you are using a high resolution screen or monitor. While browsing online blogs i found a plugin that works on FireFox and Google Chrome , it allows you to remove the white space between trending column and the chat column on the right. If you tried it add a comment to tell and tell me what do you think of it. source

We often get asked about why my google+ profile or account was suspended or terminated? Most of time it was due to spam or profile name violation and didn’t get a chance to read the conduct policy. To make it easier, we have listed 13 important reasons (user content and conduct policy) why a account could be limited, suspended or terminated. It’s really simple and self explanatory. You may read detailed version that is available here . 13 things you should avoid doing with your Google+ account Illegal activities Do not distribute or promote malware or any malicious product Hate speech Personal and confidential information Account hijacking Ensure child safety (do not distribute child pornography in any form) Spam Ranking manipulation (do not try to search engine optimize [seo] here) Gambling Sexually explicit material Violent or bullying Impersonation or deceptive behavior Fake profile names Violation of one or more of the above will trigger immediate profile suspens...

This is a remarkable achievement for a brand new social network that is still in beta stage and just 9 months old since the launch in July 2011. Here is +Vic Gundotra, Senior Vice President of Google has to say: More than 170 million people have upgraded to Google+, enjoying new ways to share in Search, Gmail, YouTube and lots of other places. It’s still early days, and there’s plenty left to do, but we’re more excited than ever to build a seamless social experience, all across Google. We take this opportunity to congratulate Google and the Google+ team for this remarkable achievement. Great job guys!!

Google+ has a new interface that brings a lot of changes. It's not yet available to everyone and that's because it rolls out over the next few days. The new interface has a vertical navigation bar that lets you reorder and hide apps. When you mouse over an app, Google+ shows a list of quick actions. This change will make it easier to add third-party apps in the future.  There are two new pages in the navigation bar: a hangouts page that lists the invitations from the people you've added to your circles, as well as a list of popular hangouts and an explore page for "what's hot".

Now when you search in Google+, you'll see a message about new posts the instant they're available. If you click on this message, or select "Most recent", then relevant posts will start appearing in real-time. Google also add the Hashtag feature to Google+, and can learn more about it from this video:

More bad news for Google+: First, we discovered that Google’s top management apparently aren’t big users of the company’s social network, then traffic fell and now it appears that at least one of the rank-and-file is pretty critical of the platform as well. Steve Yegge, a Google engineer, intended his 5,000-word post to be an internal diatribe for other Google employees, but accidentally published it for his 2,000 or so followers. The rant, posted in its entirety  here , at first focuses on Yegge’s former employer, Amazon, which he calls to task for its inconsistent hiring practices and CEO Jeff Bezos, who is presented as an obsessive micromanager.