Upon logging into the service now, you’ll spot that Google has added the option of a cover photo along with a neat customizable ribbon on the left hand side. It lists shortcuts to different aspects of your profile such as photos, hangouts, games and circles, but the beauty of it is being able to bring favorite icons to the top and hide icons you don’t need so much in the ‘more’ section at the bottom.

Also contained in the update is a brand new Google+ trends section, which is already seeing some hilarious results. If you have been using the new Google+ for a number of hours, you’ll notice that there is a rather large amount of white space which Google has left blank.

This has created a ‘#usesforwhitespace’ trend on the site, as people are uploading hilarious photos and ideas on how they have eliminated the white space from their Google+ profile. One of our favorites seen so far is a computer monitor turned into portrait mode to remove the amount of white space, while there’s also some really cool animations being used as well. What are the odds on Chuck Norris making an appearance soon guys?

All in all, it’s a great little update – one which all Google+ users should appreciate. There’s an official video from Google previewing the changes below. If you have already jumped on the white space bandwagon, let us know some of your best ideas.

Today we are going to talk about a new extensions called Google+ Notifications, you can find it here. Installation of this extension takes a few seconds, but once installed it will further enhance your G+ experience. To sum things up it shows you when you get a notification on your Google+ account no-matter what webpage you are viewing, prior to this you had to be on a site such as Google.com to see any indication of notifications.

This extensions sits between the address bar and the settings button on Chrome (just like many other Chrome extensions), when you get a notification you can simply click on the icon and see what the notification is about, here you can add people to circles and reply to comments etc. If you wish you can even click on the link in the notification to head over to Google+ to see it in full. Below we have embedded a screenshot which gives you a quick glimpse of the Google+ Notifications extension.

We have only used this extension for a little while, yet so far we have been very impressed and will definitely be keeping it installed. It allows us to keep in touch with the social network without being taken away from the webpage we are on, or opening a new tab, which is great. We have however noticed that notifications don’t come up as quickly as they would if you were on a Google site such as Gmail, Google Maps, Google.com etc – but we imagine that this is something Google will address soon.

Have you installed the Google+ Notifications extension for Chrome, if so are you impressed?

Traffic to the site has reportedly dropped by a massive sixty percent since the public launch during September. Figures have gone back down to the amount of traffic the site was getting before it was opened up, and it seems like the site is having trouble getting visitors coming back for more. Digital Trends are reporting that the latest traffic figures come courtesy of data analytics firm Chitika.

For the first couple of days of being available to the public visitors to the site leapt massively, but this is allegedly to have quickly gone back the other way. Google have had no trouble getting people to the site, but keeping there has been a different matter. Chitika feels this is because it doesn’t offer anything that Facebook doesn’t.

Because many people are already on Facebook people stick to what they already know. Google has been able to offer users popular Facebook games such as CityVille, but this doesn’t seem to be working either. It is claimed that Facebook users only spend around ten percent of their time actually playing games, so games may not be a great pull to the site.

Some of the surge in visitor numbers to Google+ may have come because of all the changes that were going on at the time with Facebook. It’s only early days and Google+ is a worthy alternative to Facebook, but if user’s friends stick with Facebook it will be difficult persuading people to switch.

Are you still using Google+?

Media sharing was pretty good from the start, but it was not known how popular it would become on G+, so much so that there are now plans to improve the user experience. As always Google has been very cryptic when giving out information, so much so that TNW feels that the hints that Bradley Horowitz offered are too broad to pin down any specific area where Google will be able to improve on.

Although, we know that it will have something to do with how we interact with each other when it comes to sharing our posts, images and videos – sorry, it’s a little obvious I know. However, there is a slim possibility that Google will start partnerships up with news services, which could then lead into monetization. Although the company has said in the post that this is not important, it has to be their end goal.

Google has more than enough money to keep them going for a while, but they are not in the habit of offering a service where they will not make money from it. However, we do not expect this to happen for sometime, as they have revenues coming in from all over the place, such as AdWords and AdSense. Maybe this is where Google+ will be able to make ground up against Facebook, as they went through the stage of not trying to monetize their social network. However, they are now all about the money, and for some this is seen as a put off.

According to Digital Trends the sites traffic jumped a massive 1,269%, which gave it a spot in the top ten social networking sites. It may still be behind the likes of MySpace and Facebook, but new data from Experian Hitwise shows a lot of new users giving Google+ a try.

To coincide with the site being opened up to the public Google also announced some new features, which included improved Hangouts and search features. In the period since then there has been a big increase in visits, with the US getting 15 million alone. The week before the site only experienced 1.1 million visits in the country.

These figures don’t even take into account visits from mobile users, and the sudden increase must be down to the site being opened up. Also many Facebook users have been complaining about all the changes currently taken place on the site, which may have resulted many defecting over to Google+.

Hitwise has Google+ sitting at number eight in the top ten sites that is a major jump from the 54 spot it previously held. Google+ is offering more features to tempt Facebook users across to the site, as it now offers the CityVille game that is a massive hit with 72 million users on Facebook playing it.

The amount of users the Google+ now has is estimated to be around 43 million, which is a long way short of Facebook’s numbers but is growing fast. Have you given Google+ a try yet?

Before you even think about joining the new social networking service, you will need to have a Google account. One thing that puzzles me, I am already joined to Google+ – so why are they still asking for me to join? You would have thought that once signed in to my Google account they would know that I already have the Plus service (view my profile here and join my circles)?

Yesterday we mentioned how some users have now begun to abandon the new service, and has now started to feel a little like a baron wasteland. We should give Google+ the benefit of the doubt, as things will pick up once the service has been established for a while. We say this because Facebook users do not want to leave for the Plus service in fear that it will go the same was as Google Buzz. Having said that, the search engine Goliath has said that they are in it for the long-term and are committed to investing heavily in it.

You may think that it is funny, but I have never joined Facebook. The reason for this is because it was not a nice idea that my business side of things would mix with my personal life. However, Google+ was different, which is why I signed up. My account has a number of different Circles, so nice that I can choose who sees my posts. There have been a few mistakes along the way, such as putting photos in the wrong circle, but you have to love how you can edit your entries.

Please let us know if you have already signed up to Google+ and what your experiences are. If not, then do you plan to join this latest social networking service?

The new site had racked up around twenty million users since it started its invitation only trial, and now the search engine giant has opened it up to the public. The Guardian is reporting that this could be a big moment as the new kid on the block takes on Facebook and Twitter. It has a way to go before it can boast the same amount of users though, as Facebook has around 800 million users with Twitter over 100 million.

Google+ allows users to easily share content with only the friends they want too via its Circles feature. Content can be made public or just shared with one person, family, or close friends. It is varies from what Twitter can offer as well with users being able to share posts of unlimited length.

Since Google+ first started over one billion items have been shared on the site according to Google’s Vic Gundotra. There have also been some new features announced for the site including video chat using compatible mobile phones. These can also be recorded and broadcasted for friends to watch, and a new search feature has been announced.

One feature that has been a breath of fresh air on the site is the games. Unlike Facebook if you know someone who plays lots of games, your news feed doesn’t get filled up with all of their results. Many people before have said they would move to Google+ if their friends do the same. Now it has been opened up this may begin happening with many Facebook users defecting across.

You now give Google+ a try?

When Google+ was first launched it was seen as something new and fresh, which is why it took no time to achieve 20 million users. The main reason was how slick it all was, and the fact that it had much more features to offer when compared to Facebook. However, it did not take long for the number one social network to implement some of these new features themselves.

It is hard to know just what has gone wrong, but The Express Tribune believes that Google+ is an epic fail, but why? They do have one or two ideas, such as older people building something for people much younger than them – but that seems a little absurd. We believe that people do not like change, as Facebook already works, why move from something that is already working just fine – well apart from one or two issues that is?

We can clearly see that activity has been decreasing, over the past two months there have been over 40 percent less posts going on to Google+. It’s a shame because the new service promised so much, but we all knew that it was a novelty and that interest would begin to die down. Google has clearly stated that they are in it for the long haul, and will continue to develop their social networking service – just hope they do not put too much money into the project.

There has been talk that games would find their way onto Google+ for a while, and now they have arrived. According to Redmond Pie, unlike Facebook the games on Google+ will work in an unobtrusive way. This can be a big problem with Facebook where if you know someone who plays a lot of games, your news feed can be filled up with content from the games.

With Google+ there will be a new Games button at the top of the screen located next to the Circles icon and search bar. When a user clicks on the button it will take you to a dashboard that will contain all the games currently available. The new feature is being rolled out in the coming weeks so not everyone will see it currently.

The games page will also show game updates from your Circles as well as your game accomplishments. People in your Circles will only see game updates if they are interested in the games as well. The great part of this new feature is that the only place you will see any reference to games is on the games page.

Google has partnered with Zynga who are responsible for a number of popular Facebook games, and Google has used its blog to encourage other developers to jump on board and work on titles for the site. Some of the games available from the off include the illustrious Angry Birds, Zynga Poker, Diamond Dash, Bejeweled Blitz, Bubble Island, Crime City, and more.

For now Google is keeping the amount of developers it is working with low, as it feels this will keep the quality of the games at a higher level. It will also be hoping that introducing games in this way will not alienate users who left Facebook because of the way games work on the site.

Will the introduction of games convince you to ditch Facebook for Google+? If anyone would like an invite I still have some left so drop me an email.

Owners of the iPhone have been able to publish updates to their Google+ accounts, and see updates from people in their Circles for a couple of weeks now. Now there is a new version which not only supports the iPad and iPod Touch, some sought after features have also been added.

An article on eWeek is reporting that that just like users of the Android version of the application, users of the iOS version can view specific Google+ Circles in a Stream. They can also start a Huddle group messaging chats via another users profile page. Other features include the ability for users to choose what people from their Circles can start Huddle chats with them.

These new features can be accessed by users from the settings gear icon found on the home screen. Other things which have been fixed by the update are the app now allows users to + mention someone in a post, and also allow them to join conversations. This feature was missing from the original iPhone version of the application.

There is still one feature missing from the application though as users still can’t use the Instant Upload option. Android users can automatically add photos from their smartphones to their Google+ account. Hopefully it won’t be too long before this feature is made available for users on the iOS platform.

When the iPhone Google+ application was first launched to the App Store, many users rushed to download the app. But a few problems were found and the application was not very stable. As the site continues to grow in popularity we can expect to see more additions and enhancements for all the features of it.