Category: Google+

Approved Posting in Communities


Approved Posting in Communities
Today we’re rolling out a highly requested feature for Community owners and moderators. On the new Google+ Web, iOS, and Android apps, Communities now have a new “Hold Posts for Review” setting.

With this on, all new posts will be held for review and not visible to Community members until approved by a Community owner or moderator. The MODERATE button will indicate when there’s new posts to review. Each post can be approved or rejected manually or each member in the review queue can be banned or auto-approved. Banned members will be removed from the Community and not allowed to join again. Auto-approved members will have their posts automatically show in the future (no approval required).

As always, please send us your ideas/issues using our Send Feedback menu item as that’s the best way to ensure we’ll see them. Thanks~

More on the New Google+

More on the New Google+
Today we made several Google+ announcements:

1. Google+ will become a core Google for Work service
2. We’re launching a few new features
3. The Google+ Web experience will be default on for everyone (with an option to switch back to Google+ classic)

Also of note, in November (http://goo.gl/4ACDk9):
“There are 1.2 million joins of communities a day on the platform…and collections are seeing even more pickup”

And today:
“Since introducing the new version, twice as many Collections are followed per day and there are 1.6 million daily new Community joins.”

Full details are in Danielle’s post: https://plus.google.com/+DanielleBuckley/posts/AnaA1XCANWm

Links & Images in Comments


Links & Images in Comments
We’re starting to roll out the ability to add images and links to comments on Google+ for Android, iOS, and the Web. When leaving a comment with a link, you’ll be able to select a specific image or post without one. You can also remove both images and links before posting your comment and we’ll warn you to make sure nothing gets lost.

As always, please send us your ideas/issues using our Send Feedback menu item as that’s the best way to ensure we’ll see them. Thanks~

Bringing the new Google+ to more people


Bringing the new Google+ to more people

Last November, (http://goo.gl/Yn6mjA) we introduced a preview on web of a fully redesigned Google+ to make it easier for people to discover and connect around unique and interesting things. From a Japanese astronaut sharing his experience in the International Space Station (http://goo.gl/JZQ7wH) to food lovers sharing their passion for breadmaking (http://goo.gl/wEh0C8), people are using Google+ to explore their interests more than ever.

Since introducing the new version, twice as many Collections are followed per day and there are 1.6 million daily new Community joins. Many of you have also shared feedback and requests, and we’ve been listening (http://goo.gl/IMLvy7).

Today, we’re announcing three new updates for Google+.

First, some new features. You can now have richer conversations by adding links and photos to your comments. We’re also offering Community owners and moderators more control over who posts what with approved posting. Finally, we’re launching a new notifications center on the web where you can see and manage your recent activity on Google+. These features will be available across the web, Android and iOS in the coming weeks.

Second, if you haven’t yet previewed the new Google+, over the next few days we’ll upgrade you to the experience when you sign in on the web. You’ll still be able to toggle back to classic Google+ for the time being.

Finally, businesses have told us that they’ve found Google+ to be a valuable way to help employees share ideas and expertise via Collections and Communities, and we’re looking forward to making it available to more organizations. Today, Google Apps users already using Google+ (http://goo.gl/GxGRXo) will also see the new experience (goo.gl/IJtbah) when they sign in and in the next few weeks, Google+ will become a core Google for Work service.

From the interesting (http://goo.gl/yP2QJp), to the surprising (http://goo.gl/3dk0Xs), and the delightful (goo.gl/gix7s6), we hope Google+ continues to help you discover amazing things from passionate people.

9 Months of New Web Features


9 Months of New Web Features
Since launching our new Google+ Web preview nine months ago, we’ve been busy listening to all the feedback, ideas, and issues you’ve shared with us. The end result has been a continuous stream of feature additions, fixes, and updates. With today’s news (http://goo.gl/kqe5MT), I thought it would be useful to recap all these changes and thank everyone for their help in identifying and launching the following:

Home Stream
* Ability to reply to comments in the stream
* +1 comments with one click
* New presentation for original comments on re-shared posts
* Real-time indicator of when there’s new posts
* Auto-play of animated GIFs (with setting to turn on/off)
* 3 column stream view for very wide screens
* Hover over user images for more info about people
* “What You Missed” posts in your Home stream
* Full timestamp on post pages
* No limits on circle streams in menu

Posts
* Ability to create polls
* Ability to crop photos in polls
* Upload multiple images at once to a post
* Ability to re-order multiple images using drag & drop
* Warning to ensure you don’t lose new posts
* View map for images with location
* Multiple improvements to +mentions

Communities
* Search for members in a Community
* Search for posts within a Community
* New simpler invite to Community feature
* Visible about information for Communities
* Links to categories on Community pages
* New Community content controls
* Community owner & moderator badges on comments
* Possible for owners to delete communities
* Possible for owners & moderators to leave communities
* View most recently visited Communities

Collections
* Easily move any of your posts into a Collection
* Improved Collection sharing
* Ability to create a Collection when making a post
* When following a Collection, see related Collections
* Related Collections on post pages
* Follower counts visible on your Collections

Notifications
* Updated notifications in the header
* New full-screen notifications page
* The new Google+ Activity Log
* Pinned posts on Collections, Communities, and Profiles

Profiles
* Easier access to profile information
* Full “About” information on profiles
* Edit your introduction in About Me
* See large profile images in a gallery view
* New Following screen design
* View ‘Posts from Circle’ from the Following screen

Search
* Improved people search results
* Improved Community search results
* Search history

Spam & Abuse
* Additional details when reporting abuse on posts
* Approve or reject comments we (G+) flag as spam
* Remove suspended users from Community member lists

Some of you might rightly recognize that items on this list were present in Google+ Classic but were added to the new Web preview over the past nine months. Why? Last year we completely re-wrote the Google+ Web app from scratch. Rather than rebuild every nook and cranny that developed over the five year history of Google+, we started with a clean slate of the features people used the most (based on our data & research). We then released this preview version to collect feedback and find out what people missed the most of what we left out.

Not every feature/setting has returned but we have been continuously listening and making updates (as seen above). And we’ll continue doing so. To make your voice heard, please send us your ideas/issues using the Send Feedback menu item. Thanks~

G+ Android Update 8.4 & 8.5

G+ Android Update 8.4 & 8.5
We’re continuing to work on larger re-writes that will make development on the Google+ Android app faster in the future. As a result, our Android releases continue to be lighter on features and mostly consist of bug fixes. Two weeks ago we rolled out version 8.4.0 of the G+ Android app and today we’re rolling out version 8.5.0. Between them:

* 21 bug fixes
* 3 accessibility issues addressed
* Show profile pictures next to comments in home stream

As always, please send us your ideas/issues using our Send Feedback menu item as that’s the best way to ensure we’ll see them. Thanks~

Google+ Collections Search


Google+ Collections Search
Google+ search now returns a bigger set of Collections that are relevant to your searches and interests, via improved topicality search. For instance, searching for “Bird photos” today surfaces a wider set of Collections that are topically relevant but may not have those specific words in their name.

As always, please send us your ideas/issues using our Send Feedback menu item as that’s the best way to ensure we’ll see them. Thanks~

Introducing the Album Archive


Introducing the Album Archive
Today we made the Google Album Archive available to all our users. This new page is an archive for Picasa Web Albums (http://googlephotos.blogspot.com/2016/02/moving-on-from-picasa.html) which previously collected your photo albums across Google services such as:

* Google+ photos from posts
* Google profile photos
* Photos from Blogger
* Photos shared in Hangouts
* Maps panoramas
* and more

On the Album Archive, you can view, download, or delete these albums and photos. As the name implies… this really is an archive (no commenting, editing, adding, etc.) and part of our transition from Picasa. You can access your album archive page from your About Me page on Google: https://aboutme.google.com/

Your Album Archive page includes a ‘Photos of You’ album which shows any photos you have been tagged in including photos owned by other people. Additionally, you can navigate to other people’s Album Archive pages by tapping on ABOUT on their Google+ profile page (available on Android today and other platforms soon). There you’ll see the photos and videos that person has previously shared with you.

As always, please send any ideas/issues using the Send Feedback menu item as that’s the best way to ensure we’ll see it.
Thanks~