The time may have finally come for you to stop writing off Google+.

While Facebook has dominated headlines in recent months with all of this Timeline talk, Google+ has quietly put forth an effort to keep pace with both Facebook and Twitter, upgrading the social network’s platform to include features similar to that of the other social media giants.

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If You Can’t Beat ‘Em…

When exploring the brand new Google+ layout, a few things will seem strikingly similar to your other highly visited social playgrounds.

For starters, Google+ has now introduced the cover photo feature for all of its users, one of the staples of the new Facebook Timeline layout. While the layout of your name and profile picture around the cover photo is slightly different, the effect is still just as striking and aesthetically pleasing.

Also familiar is the trending topics feature that Google+ has now integrated into the social network, a feature made globally popular by Twitter, using #hashtags to denote a topic of conversation.

While this may seem like a blatant rip-off of Twitter, let’s not forget that no one has a patent on the idea of sharing breaking news in a “what’s happening right now” kind of manner.

In fact, it’s kind of silly that the other social networks haven’t worked similar features into their platforms by now. After all, if the idea is to have these social networks be the hub of all things Internet—communication, news, information, and entertainment—then it’s a step in the right direction for Google+ to introduce a trending topics feature to its platform.

What’s So Great About It?

For starters, Google+ certainly has a cleaner look than Facebook, boasting a sidebar on the left side of the page that lists all the major components of your account, including the following:

  • Home – The main page for your entire accounts
  • Profile – Your main profile page with personal information
  • Explore – For finding out what’s new and interesting on Google+
  • Hangouts – The ability to video chat and communicate with friends, family, & co-workers.
  • Photos – Like Facebook, you can upload and share your photos
  • Circles – The ability to segment your friends into several categories so you can control who you share your information with
  • Games – Games and apps are featured for users to explore

By clicking any of these icons on the left sidebar, you are taken to the designated page, where you can engage and explore. Compared to Facebook’s current home page, it has a much cleaner and efficient look.

And let’s face it; the aesthetics of the platform go a long towards increasing users and awareness. The cooler it looks, the cooler it is. It’s really that simple. People want something that looks really cool and is easy to use.

It looks like Google+ has taken great strides toward achieving that.

Will it Finally Break Through?

This is a tough question to answer, as Facebook and Twitter are literally sewn into the fabric of popular culture, so Google+ would need to achieve this as well to even compete at that level.

However, they’re certainly taken steps in the right direction from being a rather boring looking platform to a very hip, cool, easy to navigate social media platform. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was Facebook. But Google is confident they are headed in the right direction.

Said Google’s Vic Gundotra in a blog post, “It’s still early days, and there’s plenty left to do, but we’re more excited than ever to build a seamless social experience, all across Google.”

So the question is, has Google+ finally piqued your interest?

Key Takeaways:

  • Google+ revamped its entire platform to offer a cleaner, more easy to navigate social network.
  • They now feature a cover photo option, much like Facebook.
  • Trending topics has been introduced, also similar to another social media giant, Twitter.

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