Previously read notifications now collapsed by default

Previously read notifications that normally display when clicking on the notification bell are now collapsed by default.

In what seems to be a trend in Google+ updates of late, the development team seem to be currently focused on rolling out refinements to the core experience, rather than feature additions and other bells and whistles. You know, things like a more useable Communities landing page and improvements to Google+ posts and comments across the service, Blogger and YouTube.

When clicking "Previously read", your dismissed notifications will slide up from the bottom

This particular change affects notifications on the desktop web, bringing the system more inline with the service's mobile counterparts, with a new "Previously read" button in place of your dismissed notifications. Pressing the button will bring up your past interactions, of course. You could say that this is a minor change, but it improves on two important factors to the overall experience - user interface and loading times.

User interface

Yes, without the already-seen notifications being displayed every time you view your notifications, it is now clutter free, and helps towards a cleaner, minimal fuss experience.

Loading times

The typical user will click +Mr. Jingles a few times a day to keep up with notifications. But every time the user clicks, the previously read notifications would usually appear too, which adds precious milliseconds (they add up). Today's update shaves time in this area, resulting in slightly snappier performance that's actually noticeable.

During my testing of this update, I've noticed several new animations when switching between notifications etc. Pretty slick.

The update appears to be rolling out today for both the desktop web version of Google+ and the Google+ Notifications Chrome extension, so if you don't have it yet, feel free to check back every couple of hours or so.

Any thoughts on this update? Let us know in the comments!