I’m not reporting the news by any means, as pretty much anyone who is a little bit social media savvy by now is fully aware of the changes to Google+.  I am only offering my quick opinions after playing around on it here and there throughout the day.

I really like it.

About a month ago I wrote a blog about how Google+ is still one of my favorite social platforms.   This was before I knew about any specific changes coming to the appearance or functionality.  I knew Google was committed and I was simply looking forward to what was next. 

Next just happened.

It’s still very new and has a lot to be played with and tried, but my initial reaction is that it is a few things:

• Very clean
• Smooth
• No ads make it just look better than Facebook
• User friendly
• Functionally it makes more sense
• Enhanced useability of things like Hangouts and G+ apps on the side
• Improved cover images for both personal and brand pages
• Much bigger, vivid imagery in the timeline
• Better integration with YouTube, search, and Gmail

I know there are many more new things and cool things that just changed.  These are just my initial observations.

Also, I was on a call yesterday with Twitter and they told me they are now at 140 Million users.  Google+ announced this week they are at around 170 Million.  Wow.  Now I know that doesn’t technically account for ONLY G+ users (Google has many other services and platforms), but the fact is that it’s growing.  A lot.

Facebook remains king…for now.

I’ve been preaching this all along to people, but look out for Google+ over the next year.