The Google+ App for iPhone was updated on Thursday and with its upgrade comes larger profile images, easier photo and video browsing and new visual cues that makes looking for options far more simplistic.

In a blog post Google says the app has been upgrade to “focus on the most personal of personal computers: your mobile phone.”

On the visual side the program now allows users to see photos, articles or text in a new visually stimulating manner, while new crisp fonts, larger profile pics and a nicer homescreen have been added.
The company hopes that its new layout will allow users to distinguish between Google+ and other apps that are not quite as “crisp” in design. ogle also said of the layout “We’re making the stream easier to scan, and easier on the eyes with overlays, gradients and other visual elements.”

Along with its visual updates Google also has some functional upgrades: read more

Google News on Friday added some new upgrades to its platform including larger thumbnail photos that dynamically expand when stories are selected and the ability to more robustly share information via Google+.

Speaking about the company’s new Google+ integration a representative for Google wrote in a blog post:

“Many news stories inspire vibrant discussions on Google+, and today we’re starting to add this content to both the News homepage, and the realtime coverage pages.”

If you want to see just headlines the feature can be turned off, otherwise you will see news from your circles, journalists and other “notable” writers right on the Google News homepage.  read more

It seems like everyone these days loves the ability to Tumblr to attract new readers but Google+ might not be included in that group, especially after Star Trek actor and geek superstar Wil Wheaton took to his Tumblr account on Thursday to flip out on Google+ over a forced registration request while watching a YouTube video.

In his rank  Wheaton specifically attacked a mandatory registration request made by Google when he tried to “Like” a video to his Facebook account.

Here’s the rant: read more

In some parts of the world mobile data networks, wi-fi and other basic internet connections are not readily available, even when carrier towers are within reach, it is for that reason that the Google India Blog announced on Monday that users in various parts  of the world can now begin updating their Google+ status using SMS (text messaging).

When the Google+ SMS service was first announced it was only available in the US and India starting in July 2011, the new update however brings the feature to 41 new countries including:

Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Bahrain, Benin, Cambodia, Cameroon, Congo (DRC), Cote D’Ivoire, Egypt, Ghana, Guinea, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Zambia.

Using the Google+ SMS status update service couldn’t be any easier, simply go to your Google+ settings page and activate your phone for use on the network. Once you have entered your number you can then begin posting updates and you will receive comments for those updates via SMS text messages.  read more

If like millions of Google account holders you have chosen to use your same account for YouTube and Google+ the company has rolled out a new feature that allows you to create new YouTube channels directly from your Google+ account.

On Youtube’s blog Product manager Trevor O’Brien reveals:

You can now use your Google+ profile name and photo on a new YouTube channel, giving you one consistent identity across platforms when uploading videos, sharing, commenting and other public activities.”

The process is very simply to implement, basically you choose to create a new YouTube channel from inside your Google+ account and you will see the following options: read more

It’s no secret that Facebook and Google don’t really like each other and that fact was highlighted on Monday when Facebook made it slightly harder for Google Blogger users to share posts on the social network.

Facebook has added a Captcha check that requires users to enter hard-to-read text into a box after it is presented as a graphic.

Designed to filter out spam from bots and other tricksters. The program focuses on online sites and doesn’t appear at this time to affect other users such as Official Google Mobile Blog users.

It also appears that the Captcha does not affect more popular Google Blogger websites.

In the meantime LiveJournal, WordPress, TypePad and Squarespace blogging platforms remain free of the annoying captcha feature now used for the Blogger platform.  read more

Since Google launched Google+ the company has quickly attempted to piggyback on the social networks success by rolling out new ways to use social media information. Recently Google began sharing Google+ posts in search results and now it’s using Leaderboard to compete with Foursquare, a leaderboard feature that implements Google+ data to rank users.

If you’re unfamiliar with Google’s Leaderboard it’s a program that rolled out last week for the Google Maps platform and allows users to earn points by checking into locations via Google Latitude.

The program has rolled out for Android devices with an iPhone version sure to follow in the future.

Google hasn’t officially announced the program as a Foursquare competitor, in fact the company didn’t even list Leaderboard feature when adding it to the new version of Android Google Maps, instead focusing on minor bug fixes including “improved battery performance for Latitude and Location History users.”

Google has also not yet provided all users with the most recent version of Leaderboard equipped Google Maps and the program only works for select users once they have checked into a location using Google Latitude.

Using the program Maps users can share their location as they have been able to do for the last year using Google’s Latitude app. Once checked in the user earns points and they are then shows the Leaderboard page which ranks them against their Google+ friends.

We’re sure even more features will be added once the program is fully released to all Google Maps users for Android.

Would you switch from Foursquare to Google Latitude Leaderboard if the programs end up being similar or will you just check in with two location based services?

Here’s a look at Google’s new Leaderboard feature:

Google Inc. on Monday removed content from various blogger specific domains in India after the countries leaders warned a “China type response” if the company didn’t better censor content deemed “religiously inappropriate.”

The request comes one week after Google announced plans to censor blogger platform content in certain countries through specific URL domain protocols. For example a post may be banned in India but still show up in a country where freedom of speech is available.

Speaking about the request Google representative Paroma Roy Chowdhury  noted:

“(Our) review team has looked at the content and disabled this content from the local domains of (Google) search, Youtube and Blogger.” read more

Less then a week after Twitter announced the censorship of Tweets in certain parts of the world search giant Google has announced a similar program targeted at the company’s blogger platform.

To reach the company’s new censorship goal GOogle will begin redirecting Blogger users to country-specific URLs for example instead of a Google.com blog in France the content would direct the users to Google.fr.

By adding country specific URLs Google can censor a blog post in one country but leave it untouched for example in the United States. read more

Google+ is cruising along these days and that fact was buoyed by Google CEO Larry Page on Thursday when he announced during the company’s quarterly finance meeting that Google+ is now serving more than 90 million users.

When you take into consideration the fact that Google+ was reporting just 40 million users in October 2011 the improvement in usage is astounding.

In December 2011 Google+ watcher Paul Allen predicted that the social network had 62 million users while Experian Hitwise has predicted 400 million users by the end of 2012. read more