Google Plus implements ‘a few big improvements’ for the New Year

Google Plus announced a “goodie basket” of functional features and big improvements for the upcoming New Year on its Official Google Blog today.

Bradley Horowitz, vice president of Google Plus product, posted the blog and claimed the new features were on everyone’s wish list.

The first feature mentioned is “Pump up (or down) the volume,” and through the addition, Google will enable users to fine-tune their streams.

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“When viewing the stream for a particular circle, you’ll now see a slider at the top that lets you adjust how posts from that circle should be blended into the main stream,” wrote Horowitz in the blog post. “That way you’ll never miss a post from that special someone, and you can tweak these settings to form your own ‘perfect stream.’”

The first big improvement discussed in the blog is “More useful and attractive notifications,” and with it, Google offers sneak previews to allow users efficient social content navigation…

Google+ Notifications, Courtesy of the Official Google Plus Blog.

“[Sneak previews] immediately present what’s new and why you might care,” Horowitz wrote. “We’ve polished these notifications up and made a few other meaningful improvements too, including the ability to see the +1’s and shares your posts have received since you last checked.”

More improvements to Google Plus include “Google+ Pages,” by which the technology Giant already provides businesses  a means for connecting and engaging with consumers.

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“In the weeks since launching pages, we’ve been listening to your feedback and we’re pleased to make some of the most oft-requested features available,” Horowitz wrote.

The changes allow users to “delegate up to 50 named managers as administrators for a page,” while adding a new notification flow that will “ensure these managers stay in the loop on all the activity that takes place on a page, giving managers the ability to stay involved in page conversations.”

Furthermore, users will now show an aggregated count of users that have engaged with a page, either by “+1’ing it or by adding it to a circle.” Therefore, both the user and the user’s page visitors will have a summary of who is interacting with the page.

The final change listed on the Official Google Blog is “A more beautiful and usable photos experience,” where Google Plus is making a slew of improvements to its photo experience for the “holiday photo-sharing season.”

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With the Holiday-inspired change, viewing an image through Lightbox has been redesigned with enhanced comment legibility and improved navigation and overall utility.

“The new design makes the photo the hero, letting the content itself shine through,” Horowitz explained. “And we’re introducing a completely new photo-tagging experience that’s both fun and fluid, and lets you quickly focus on the people in your photos.

Horowitz hopes Google Plus users enjoy the New Year improvements and continue to provide the service with comments.

“While this indeed has been a #seasonforshipping, Google+ users know that we believe that shipping is always in season! We’ve been busy making some resolutions for 2012, and we think you’re going to love them,” Horowitz added.

The new functional features and improvements are expected to roll out over the next couple of days.