This past year was another one full of updates to Google's social media network. Google+ continued to improve in 2013, and there's no sign of +Vic Gundotra and the team stopping as we enter 2014. They will have to keep it up to continue to keep current users happy and give reason for prospective users to check it out and stay a while.
5. Google+ Sign-In
However, some of the changes were also seen on Google+ itself. Users were able to easily share with just the right circles on Google+, and they were able to share "Interactive Posts" that provide a call-to-action button with the post. Also, app developers are given Google+ analytics so that they can see the usage of their apps.
In 2014, I expect the usage of Google+ Sign-In to continue to increase as Google+ narrows the gap with Facebook's competitor. The +Google+ Developers Team will surely continue to update it in order to make it better like they did just this past month. If you want to add it to your app or website, make sure to check out our 6 easy steps.
4. YouTube Integration
2013 has been the year of Google+ and YouTube integration. The integration is highlighted by the new link between a brand's Google+ page and their YouTube channel and of course the new Google+ commenting system on YouTube. Neither of which went off without a hitch. Some brands had issues with linking their Google+ and YouTube due to some confusion on how to do it, and many YouTube users were upset that their commenting system was changed so drastically.
In addition, there have been a few smaller integrations including addition of YouTube stats to the Google+ Pages Dashboard, YouTube Top Fans, and the inclusion of your YouTube channel subscriptions in the Google+ Suggested User List.
As Google+ continues to improve, there's sure to be more integration between Google's top social platforms along with Blogger. The addition of videos from your YouTube subscriptions automatically in your Google+ Stream is one integration I foresee.
3. Redesigned User Interface
In March of 2013, users saw another major update to the user interface of Google+. This time, it was mainly profiles and brand pages that saw a change. Users received a brand new "Reviews" page, a refreshed "About" page (including an updated user interface for making edits), bigger cover photos, updated "Photos" profile tab with a new card layout, and tweaked Pages dashboard. Later in November of 2013, the oversized cover photos were brought down to size in a minor refresh. In addition, there was a big change to the Google+ Stream at Google I/O on May 15th: the Stream was now one, two, or three columns (depending on your screensize) with Google Now-like cards. The new Stream was accompanied by the new #hashtag system where Google+ automatically added hashtags to your posts based on the content of the post.2. Google Talk & SMS Texting Merged Into Hangouts
One of the biggest updates of the year came at Google's annual Google I/O conference. +Vic Gundotra announced the long awaited merging of Google Talk, Hangouts, and Google+ Messenger. After being rumored to being called "Babel," the service was officially named Hangouts in order to keep the same brand they've spent the last few years building. Once it launched, the mobile app replaced that of both Google Talk and Google+ Messenger. It allowed for chatting (both one-on-one and group) to seamlessly move across whichever device the user chooses. Another core feature includes being able to see how far others the in the conversation have read.
Since the announcement, the team at Google has continued to improve Hangouts including integrating it with other services such as Google Voice (allowing users to make phone calls using it). I foresee a complete replacement of Google Voice with Hangouts this year similar to what happen with Google Talk and Messenger last year. However, the biggest update thus far has to be the ability to also receive your text messages through the app on Android (announced October 30th). Now almost all of your conversations can take place through the use of a single app, Hangouts. Again, I expect this feature to be built upon. For example, I believe users will be able to send and respond to text messages via the desktop application, a feature that is already available within Google Voice.
1. Auto Awesome Pictures & Videos
Originally Auto Awesome photos only included "Mix" (collage of similar photos taken together), "HDR" (created when Google+ detects bracketed exposures), "Pano" (stitch together landscape photos of the same spot at different angles), and of course the most famous of them all, "Motion" (creates a moving GIF using still images of a moving object).
Since then, the team has continued to innovate on the idea bringing us more Auto Awesome-ness in October 2013. Users can now receive "Action" (auto awesome photos that show the movement of an object all in one photo) and "Eraser" (removes objects creating noise in a series of images such as vehicles and people passing by to create one clean image). In addition, the Google+ team announced Auto Awesome Movie which takes images and videos from an event and automatically puts them together in a movie with transition effects and music that matches the pictures and videos.
Finally, users received a holiday season gift in the form of two more Auto Awesome abilities in December! Images taken with lights (like a Christmas tree) would now become a "twinkling" GIF, and those photos a user took with snow would become a GIF with snow falling. With Auto Awesome being one of the most loved features of Google+, I fully expect to see more incremental improvements to the machine learning that causes the magic and more Auto Awesome categories.
With all of the updates to Google+, it was a great year for users! Here's to 2014!
What is your favorite Google+ update of 2013? Let us know in the comments below!