Finding a worthy read in your website and sharing it with friends encourages better engagement and loyalty, says Google+. The team behind Google’s social networking site merged elements of Google+ and Google Search to recommend the right content from your mobile site, at the right time.

Google+ Recommendations makes suggestions to keep users, or friends, engaged and updated about the latest posts on your mobile site.

The Google+ team said the new feature considers three factors to deliver high quality content: Search Authorship, Google+ activities such as +1′s and shares, and the content found on the visitor’s current page.

A recommendation is always based on the visitor’s current page, and it only appears when tapped for more content. This avoids unnecessary interruption from other browsing activities.

Google+ Recommendations for Mobile Sites

Google+ Recommendations may appear even if the visitor is not signed in to any Google service. If signed in, he or she will see content +1′d or shared by his or her circle of friends.

The team added that these content recommendations are easy to add and set up. You may add a line of JavaScript to your mobile site and modify the “For your site” section of your Google+ page dashboard without a Web editor.

The dashboard of Google+ Recommendations for Mobile Sites

Forbes now offers the new feature on any article within its mobile site. You may visit the pages through an iOS or Android device.

In other news, Google will consolidate storage between three of its major platforms: Drive, Gmail, and Google+. It now offers users 15 GB of free cloud storage across all three products.

Clay Bavo, Director of Product Management at Google, wrote in a blog post about the integration that this change will make the Google products work efficiently together.

He said this update will streamline the said services, whether that means inserting, or attaching, a file from Drive to an email, or sharing photos from Drive to Google+.

Thinking of a seamless, unified library of files in the future for each user, Bavo believes that separate storage for each platform will not make sense anymore.

The combined storage gives you free space to keep items you want, in places where you want it. For example, you can store all your files in Gmail or distribute documents and multimedia files in Drive, Gmail, and Google+.

Before the announcement, Gmail users had a limited free storage of 10 GB, while Drive and Google+ users only had 5 GB of combined storage. And the change will remove the 25 GB cap from accounts with upgraded Gmail storage.

The combined storage for Google Drive, Gmail, and Google+

Google updated the storage page of Google Drive. It now has a pie chart that breaks down your personal storage across the platforms. The page offers easy access for users who want to upgrade their storage space. For example, you may upgrade to 100 GB of storage at $4.99 per month.

All images courtesy of Google

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Google has a hard time convincing major brands to be more active on Google+ than in other social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter.

The success of Google+ depends on the increase of activity among its users in terms of following, commenting and even ranting about the brands they like on the site. When these brands are active on Google+, future prospect businesses are also established.

Corporate and marketing executives say they are turned off by Google+’ technical flaws, given the fact that they are used to Facebook’s flexibility, for example.

Google+ Users Less Active than Facebook Users

But perhaps the major problem of Google+ is that Facebook and Twitter is being used by far more consumers, and not only that, they spend more time using these sites.

Google’s social network has close to 135 million active users, and 500 million users have set up Google+ accounts. While these are huge numbers, given the fact that Google+ is relatively new (started roughly 2 years ago), Facebook still has a much larger population of 1.1 billion, and all of these users spend time on it at least once per month. Even Twitter has the edge over Google+ with about 200 million active users.

Google Plus pages of major brands are currently inactive, in contrast to the lively commercial activity in other social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. (Image: Global News time (CC) via Flickr)

Based on a Nielsen Media Research report, Google+ users based in the United States spent an average of 6 minutes and 47 seconds on the social networking site last March. Facebook users, on the other hand, spent an average of 6 hours during the same month. Mobile app activity is not included.

Thus, companies have more activity on Facebook because their target audience and customers spend most of their time there. While firms do create Google+ pages for their websites and enjoy the fact that its services assimilate well with Google search, the site just doesn’t have the commercial bustle that other social networking sites have (e.g. movie trailers and restaurant promos).

Most of the major brands have Google+ pages, including Pepsi, Nike, McDonald’s and others. Nonetheless, forty percent of these brands rarely post on the site or haven’t even posted yet.  McDonald’s has not posted yet on its Google+ page.

Dan Nguyen-Tan, vice president of sales for Public Bikes, a bicycle company based in San Francisco, said: “In my personal network, I have very few people who are actively using Google+. That could be a reason why I haven’t thought about it as an effective tool.”

Creativity in Google+ is limited

According to Vince Broady, CEO of Thismoment, a company that specializes in creating web pages and social marketing campaigns for popular brands including Intel and Coca Cola: “I don’t think that Google+ has enough creative options for brands to be able to marshal a lot of resources and activity around it.”

Google says that they are listening to the demands of companies regarding what features they would like to see on Google+. As an example, the social networking site doesn’t support iFrame, which is an HTML element which represents a nested browsing context, effectively embedding another HTML page into the current page.

Google+ Victories

Since Google+ is tied to Google, the biggest search engine online, businesses on the social network have a ranking advantage in the search engines results page, with information on their profiles getting additional visibility.

Furthermore, search advertisements that contain information related to Google+ have CTRs (click through rates) that are 5 – 10 percent better than ordinary search ads. Google+ value for the moment seems to lie on its ability to improve search results.

Google+ currently doesn’t showcase advertisements right now, but Brian Wieser, an analyst from Pivotal Research Group says that enticing major brands to do so is vital to having a significant source of revenue.

Google+ Persuades Major Brands to be more Active Social Barrel - The Latest on Social Media

Google+ has a lot of catching up to do against Facebook, especially in one key metric: time spent.

According to Nielsen’s latest study, Google+ visitors hung around for 6 minutes and 47 seconds on average in March, while Facebook visitors spent 6 hours and 44 minutes on average during the same period.

The average time spent on Facebook, the world’s largest social networking site with more than one billion members, is down from the average 7 hours and 9 minutes visitors spent in March last year.

Time spent on Google+ was a significant increase of about 3.3 minutes on average from February last year based on comScore’s findings. Take note that the numbers do not include traffic from Android apps.

A representative for Google told Mashable that Nielsen’s figures are nowhere near the search giant’s internal data.

Nielsen gathered information only from direct visits to plus.google.com, not from any other Google domains such Gmail and YouTube, the Google rep added.

In terms of visits from mobile devices, Nielsen said that 20 million unique visitors in the United States accessed Google+ through its Android and iPhone apps. The number of visits in March is 238 percent higher than the figure from the same period last year.

The number of Google+ visitors from desktop computers leaped 63 percent from last year, or 28 million unique visitors in the U.S. market.

The analytics firm did not release a combined figure for traffic from desktop and mobile devices to Mashable. And it’s highly likely that many visitors visit the social network through both desktop computers and mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.

Meanwhile 99 million people used their mobile devices to visit Facebook in March this year, and 142.1 million unique visitors used their desktop computers to socialize on the website.

In comparison, microblogging site Twitter had 34 million unique visitors from the desktop during the same period, and 29 million unique visitors from its official mobile app on supported platforms.

GlobalWebIndex reported in February that Google+ was the second most actively used social network online during the last quarter of 2012. It outpaced Twitter, but still looks up to first placer Facebook.

The Q4 2012 study revealed that 51 percent of Internet users logged in to Facebook at least once a month, followed by 25 percent for Google+, and 21 percent for both Twitter and Google-owned video streaming site YouTube.

Social media marketers should take note of the latest Google+ figures if they want to rank high in search engine results, especially the social network’s namesake and provider Google.

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From now on, Google+ users will be able to use animated GIF images as their profile pictures.

The announcement was made by Matt Steiner, a Google software engineer, in a post on his Google+ profile.

He says: “You can now use an animated gif for your profile photo!  It will animate on the profile page on both desktop and mobile”.

“Like newspapers in Harry Potter ,” the software engineer adds.

GIF images, which has seen a resurgence in popularity as of late, stand for Graphics Interchange Format come with built-in data compression and support for animation.

GIF Images can contain frames that are displayed in succession which enables it to be animated.

Nonetheless, the Google+ support for GIF images as profile pictures comes with some limitations.

Thumbnails will not support animation. A user needs to view another user’s Google+ profile page in order to view their animated GIF image profile picture.

You Can Now Use Animated GIF Images For Google+ Profile Photos Social Barrel - The Latest on Social Media

Google+ mobile apps now have the ability to edit and add filters to photos.

Search giant Google recently rolled out a new update to the mobile version of its social networking service on Android and iOS devices.

The move is part of the company’s push towards a more streamlined user experience across platforms it currently supports.

The redesigned Google+ app comes with a look reminiscent of the desktop version’s layout.

Apart from its improved visuals, the mobile app has a few minor changes. And key additions include filters and photo-editing features from within the app.

Photo enhancements from Snapseed allow users to crop or rotate images and add unique filters, such as Drama and Retrolux, and adjust the contrast, saturation, and other levels.

The Android version has a freshened up content stream. For example, comment previews show more text, and image previews rarely get cropped.

Google’s update to Android, the company’s own mobile operating system, includes actions for commenting, re-sharing, and +1 – all of which with more space in each post.

In-line photo swiping allows users to take time when checking and sorting photos, with less time for clicks.

The updated Google+ app shares user location to circles. So users can choose the people who can see their current whereabouts. Only those users with permission can view the list of another user’s most recent visits and positions under the profile name.

For more flexibility Google+ for iOS and Android devices now allow users to adjust the number of posts from the community in the Home screen, to search for content and members, and to re-share news within circles or to the public.

Google’s signature colors will appear once a user refreshes the page. But previous features remain intact, including (1) magazine layout in tablets, (2) automatic photo-sharing to an Event with Party Mode, (3) video chat with 9 friends through Hangouts, (4) photo synchronization through Instant Upload from the phone to a private Google+ album, (5) trending topics in the What’s Hot stream, and (6) Nearby stream, a feature that allows a user to see what other people nearby are talking about.

Interested account holders and first time Google+ users can download the app via Google Play and Apple App Store.

Google said the package will include a complete set of Nik photo-editing plug-ins, dubbed as Nik Collection by Google, for amateur and professional photographers.

The prices of plug-ins for Aperture, Lightroom, and Photoshop has dropped to $149 from $499. It includes nifty features, such as HDR and image sharpening.

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According to the Independent, 300 million active monthly users is a huge milestone achieved by Facebook over a span of six years. However, it took Google+ less than 18 months to achieve the same feat. Even small and medium-sized businesses are benefiting from Google+, such as BakeSpace, Inc., which is a network for exchanging recipes.

Over 290 Thousand Users
Notably, over 290,000 users of Google+ have added the business page of BakeSpace, Inc. to their network circles. Founder and CEO Babette Pepaj shares that they use BakeSpace, Inc.’s Google+ page to provide information, post announcements, and conduct live hangouts weekly. According to Pepaj, even though they are also active on other social networks, they benefit greatly from using Google+. This is mainly because the platform highlights BakeSpace, Inc.’s posts, making these easily available and searchable for the people they have connected with.

Hundreds of thousands of users add Bakespace to their network through Google Plus. (Image: via tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com)

Generating Online Activity
Another unique feature of Google+ is that whenever a new person makes a comment on a post, the said post gets placed back to the top of the feed. What’s more, the Google Hangouts feature is an added plus. Pepaj shares that Google Hangouts makes it possible for them to connect with friends worldwide while streaming a live video. Because of it, they are able to produce three shows every week, and are actually planning to add a fourth.

Google Hangouts & YouTube
Basically, Google Hangouts are video chats that are done live; they can be watched as they happen on YouTube or watched later, also via YouTube. According to Pepaj, Google Hangouts allows them to post their video on YouTube just minutes after a live broadcast is finished. This makes it very convenient and easy to share videos while they are still “fresh.”

Because of BakeSpace, Inc.’s success via Google+, Pepaj urges other entrepreneurs to really “understand the value of multimedia.” This means creating visually engaging content and including photos that help generate interest and engagement.

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Google will roll out changes to profiles and pages on Google+, according to Google+ product manager Sara McKinley.

First, users can now read recommendations and reviews from friends with one click. Google+ now has a new tab for local reviews, along with the current tabs for +1′s, photos, and YouTube videos. For example, members of the social network can show their favorite dining areas through the local reviews tab or just hide it.

Second, Google+ now has a simpler way to edit personal information. The “About” tab now has separate cards with striking link for editing. Users can either share a field to a circle or not.

Lastly, Google+ now has larger cover photos and aspect ratio. The maximum resolution for cover photos can now reach up to 2120px by 1192px, with a 16×9 display when expanded. This increases the number of images with sizes fitting for a cover photo.

McKinley said the three new features in the search giant’s social network were requests and feedback from its users.

Earlier, Google+ engineers added a new feature called Google+ Sign-In that allows users to sign in using their Google credentials to any third-party app (Android, iOS, or web apps), and use personal data from their Google+ account.

Google+ Sign-In users can control what content they want to share with the app. It comes with security techniques, such as 2-step verification, expected of a Google account.

Users can use Google+ Sign-In to access a website with Google credentials and install the site’s mobile app on an Android smartphone or tablet in just one click.

Google said Google+ does not allow “frictionless” updates spam all over the stream to keep only the relevant updates. Google+ Sign-In, just like circles, allows the user to pick the persons he or she wants to share with.

Google+ Sign-In also allows friends to see interactive posts in their Google+stream when a user shares from an app that supports the new feature. When they click the post, it will take them to the app. Inside the app, they can purchase, listen, or review the shared post.

Developers who build apps for Android, iOS or the Web can add support for Google+ Sign-In through developers.google.com/+/ and start right away by checking stats when the integration is up.

Android apps need the newest version of Google Play Services. Google offers this platform to improve integration with Google products and services. It also provides new features and capabilities within third-party apps.

Google Play Services v3.0 is now available for download for developers. It comes with Google+ Sign-In and Google Maps Android API improvements.

Google+ Adds Local Reviews Tab, Larger Cover Photos, Separate “About” Cards Social Barrel - The Latest on Social Media

All Google account owners can now sign-in across multiple platforms and carry their personal information on Google+ through any app on Android, iOS, or the web. 

How? Well, Google recently added a new feature called Google+ Sign-In on its social network.

The search giant said its first release will focus on four important pillars: simplicity and security, tight integration between web and mobile apps, social spam filters, and sharing interactive multimedia posts.

Google+ Sign-In allows a user to sign in to any Google service, such as Gmail and YouTube, and use the account information to sign in to apps created by other developers.

Take note there’s an option to choose the information shared with the app on the Google+ permissions screen. Other people can view shared activities.

The search giant said Google+ Sign-In has the same security measures found on any Google account, such as its popular 2-step verification.

Signed-in apps are easy to manage on both desktop and mobile: users can either go to Google+ Apps on any web browser or open the new Google Settings for Android app.

Google Settings for Android allows a user to see apps with Google+ Sign-In and choose whether to personalize the Google AdMob Ads in Android apps or not.

The opt out option for AdMob does not block ads from Google. It will still send ads but not as relevant to the user when opted in. 

In addition, Google said developers with online and mobile versions of their apps can now save time. A simple Google sign-in to any website allows them to install the site’s mobile app on their Android device in just one click.

Google+ Sign-In also gives a Google account owner discretion to share an important event or activity to a selected group of friends or Circles. This allows them to decide if a photo or video is private or public.

Google assures that Google+ will not allow apps to send social spam – annoying updates – across the stream. The app only appears when needed, especially when a user searches for it.

When it comes to shared photos and videos, a new interactive post shows up on a friend’s Google+ stream when the user shares a multimedia file from an app that supports Google+ Sign-In.

A simple click will take the user’s friend to the app and do things: buy a copy of a song or listen to it, watch videos, or write a review about the shared clip.

Developers who are building apps for Android, iOS, or the web can go to the Google+ Developers site to read more about the new feature and more.

Android apps need the new Google Play Services with Google+ Sign-In to add the feature.

Google will roll out the new “Sign in with Google” button in stages, but developers and users can check out these sites in the meantime: Banjo, Beautylish, Fancy, Fitbit, Flixster, The Guardian, OpenTable, Shazam, TuneIn, and USA Today.

All apps used in this article are courtesy of the Google+ Developers Blog.

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According to a recent GlobalWebIndex report on Q4 2012, Google+ has been found to be the second most actively used social network online. It has surpassed Twitter, but is behind Facebook, which is still in the number one spot. Still, the second place ranking is bound to catch the attention of marketers who seek to rank high in search results.

The Latest Stats

Based on the report, during the last quarter of 2012, more than half or 51% of Internet users logged in to Facebook at least once a month. This is followed by Google+ with 25%, then by Twitter and YouTube, both of which have 21% user ratings.

Notably, an SEO Hacker post reports that the growth in Google+ users could be attributed to their increasing of relevance in search results. In the network, social media marketers are required to sign up their names and business on Google+. This way, they are able to acquire more personalized search results.

Google Plus is now second most popular social networking site. (Image: Magnet 4 Marketing dot Net (CC) via Flickr)

The Plus Button

In the SEO Hacker post, Sean Patrick Si writes that Google+ has definitely presented “the Plus button” as a huge advantage that urges users to sign up. Otherwise, they lose a factor that could help them in search rankings. Si also describes Google+’s strategy as “powerful,” “phenomenal,” and “crazy.”

A Major Influence

With these latest findings, it is clear that Google+ is fast becoming a major influence in the industry of search marketing. It is highly possible that its growth streak would continue throughout 2013. As for brands and marketers who are not yet on the network, they should seriously consider doing so, if they want to ensure high rankings in Google’s search results.

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The Google+ app for iOS-running devices including the iPhone and the iPad is now officially available in 48 new countries and territories.

The availability was announced by Google’s Vic Gundotra appropriately through his Google+ profile.

The countries and territories where the Google+ iOS app is now available are:

The announcement of the availability of the Google+ iOS app comes on the heels of Facebook’s announcement of Graph Search, viewed by many as a challenge to the dominance of Google in the search engine space.

Image from West McGowan on Flickr (CC)

Google+ iOS App Now Available In 48 More Countries Social Barrel - The Latest on Social Media