Google+ is Rolling Out A New Profile And Page Experience, Bringing New Tabs, Bigger Cover Photos And Lots More
Google+ has rolled out new features for its profile and pages, including a “Local” reviews tab and larger cover photos, one day ahead of Facebook’s big News Feed announcement.
The company announced in a Google+ post on Wednesday that users will gradually start to see some new features added throughout the social network. Among the changes is a new tab for local reviews — a move in line with Google’s efforts to expand local search across its platforms.
The new profile pages allow Bigger cover photos, with a better aspect ratio. Cover photos are much larger than before (up to 2120px by 1192px), and they display in 16×9 when fully expanded. This way more images can be used as cover photos, and there’s more room for your selection to shine.
Google also made a number of other changes to the profile pages. All of your local reviews, for example, are now available in one place under the “Reviews” section of your profile. In addition to your photos, +1’s and YouTube videos, there’s now a place for all your Local reviews. Highlight your favorite restaurants, or hide the tab completely via settings — it’s completely up to you.
The About tab now features a completely new design that organizes all of your information into separate Google Now-like cards (Basic Information, People, Story, Work, Places, Links, etc.). As before, you can obviously still share specific fields with select circles and all of the new cards also feature prominent ‘edit’ links that make keeping your profile updated a little bit easier.
Google says these updates are rolling out gradually, so give it a few hours if you don’t see them on your profile yet.
Google, by the way, also quietly revamped the hovercards that appear when you hover over a user’s avatar on the site. The new hovercards are also now significantly larger (and feature your cover photo). In addition, you can use them to initiate a Hangout, send an email to the person and to start a text chat.
