Web version, at least. A few thoughts after a very brief spin:
1. The look resembles the Android client. A lot. Rounded plus / comment / share controls. Opening up the post as the full window(ish) to do reading and comments. Rotating comment blurbs. I don't know that I care for it, but I'm sure I'll get used to it.
2. "Events" is missing. This is almost certainly a feature that has to be rolled in to the new interface. Hopefully soon. (Meanwhile, still accessible form the old interface.)
3. On my laptop, things have gone from three-column to two-column; albeit slightly wider columns / larger photos, it's still more white space creep.
4. Harkening back to the first point, to fully read a post, or to read the comments, or to comment, you have to click on the post and have it pull up a full window. That makes visually glancing at other posts not possible, it's slower, and I'm not sure it's actually more functional or efficient.
(Also, when creating a post, the underlying window cannot be scrolled, again making cross-references to other posts that much more difficult.)
5. The share button now is … well, a share button, not just for G+ but also for FB and Twitter. Looks to be using the same code as shows up in Google Photos.
Overall, it appears to be mostly an interface / design tweak, not something that adds actual functionality. The goal is to emphasize use of Communities and Collections; it's not clear how this does that, but I'm sure there's more to it than I've seen in 15 minutes of playing around. (I haven't even scratched into the Collections and Communities interface, just the home stream, but that's where I spend 99% of my time.)
I will say that it's a positive thing that such a significant change has been done, in terms of how it reflects on Google's continued commitment to the product.
Originally shared by +Luke Wroblewski:
Dive into the new Google+
As +Eddie Kessler shared this afternoon (http://goo.gl/2QjBGx), we’ve spent lots of time talking to people who are passionate about Google+. We visited them in their homes, we invited them into early testing communities and we learned more about how and why they use Google+. The predominant answer? Having a great place to keep up with and talk about their interests. From Astrophotography (goo.gl/HRQmIh) to Wild Hummingbirds (https://goo.gl/6FscI6), people are not only discovering amazing things, but meeting others who share their passions as well.Today we’re taking a big step toward making Google+ an even better place for your interests. To do so, we’ve drastically simplified nearly every aspect of the product. You’ll see this clearly in our new navigation centered around Collections and Communities. Collections let you immerse yourself in content about topics like surfing (https://goo.gl/vvv5QD) or tiny tilt-shift photography scenes (goo.gl/nWyicL) . Communities enable groups of people with the same interests to join up and geek out on anything from Game of Thrones (goo.gl/aaqtgq) to Painting (goo.gl/kmlM7m). With Collections and Communities, discovering amazing things is simple: just follow or join whatever happens to pique your interests.
But we didn’t stop with Collections and Communities; the new Google+ also makes it easier to post, search, connect, and keep up with great content in a fully redesigned home stream. And we’ve worked hard to make our new web experience load fast and work beautifully on devices of all sizes.
You can preview the new Google+ on the web today by signing in and clicking “Let’s go” when you see the prompt. (And since not every feature of Google+ has made its way into this new design, for now, you can toggle back to the classic Google+ with one click in the bottom left-hand corner.) In the coming days, we’ll roll out updated apps for Android and iOS.
While this is an exciting new beginning for us, we’re definitely not done yet. We got here by listening and learning, and will continue doing so. Please visit our Help Center (https://goo.gl/gWsFeh) or drop us a line in our support community (https://goo.gl/eMFVj) to share your thoughts, questions, and more.
6. The picture in my Community page is now a different size (and cut off). That's fixable, but kind of sloppy, Google.
7. "Poll" posts are not yet enabled. The old polls work, but I don't see a way to create new ones.
8. Shared documents (Google Docs) are much more visible (the thumbnail is readable).
9. The font on shared posts is a too-washed-out gray.
10. "POST"? Really? Everything else is iconized except the "POST" button? You do have products with a post/enter/go arrow icon; why not use that?
11. Similarly, why use a "pen" button for creating a new post, rather than a plus button (as in Inbox)
12. So +1ing a comment requires two clicks now (hit the menu button next to the comment, click on +1)? That's perhaps suited to fat-thumbing mobile interfaces, but kind of dumb on the web version.
While I'm glad they're not just killing it off, I'm not entirely pleased with the changes they've made.
Admittedly I haven't looked, but does it have the translate function? That is something I really get annoyed at with the android client — I follow a number of people who post in languages other than english and in the web version there was (is) a convenient link-ish "translate" button that isn't available in the client (or at least I've never been able to find it).
+The Bruce, Mile High Have not confirmed it one way or the other. Presumably it either is there or will be there; there are a couple of things currently missing, but I can't imagine why they (or Translate) would be actually removed.
+Les Jenkins After a rearchitecting like this, I suspect there will be some further tweaks as they register feedback (assuming they have staff dedicated to the cause). I'm not thrilled by all the changes, either, but I haven't run across any I can't live with.
OK, I just checked it out (I hope I can figure out how to go back until they get kinks worked out). The Translate link seems to only appear on the comments. I attempted to find a Translate link on a post that didn't have any comments yet and looking through every menu I could find, couldn't find it.
+The Bruce, Mile High I'd go ahead and note that in the Send Feedback tool (left margin).
On 11, I stand corrected.
On 4, the opening of a modal window seems to have gone away, but where you click in a post to get it to open up so you can read the comments and full post is still visually unclear.
12. From the Profile page, at least, if you create a new post it doesn't automatically show up in the stream, but requires a screen refresh.
13. And we (Google) seem to have changed our minds (again) about what text to show/share when linking in a page with a featured image.
14. The reorganization of the Collections and/or Communities to share something with when sharing an existing G+ post is irksome. First, the two groups are blended into a single list. Second, first a list comes up of the most recent three, and to see others you have to make yet another click. to see and scroll down through the list.
I was about to prepare a feedback about the translation issue, but as of this morning, the standard "do you want to translate this page" option appears at the top of the page when a post loads that is not in English (that was NOT the behavior yesterday). This appears to be a global setting, where in the "old" web version the translate option was by post. I can get used to it, but I also kinda like to know when I'm reading something translated by Google (which by choosing by post would be the case).
+The Bruce, Mile High There is a lot of regular tweaking going on behind the scenes since the gamma test started.
I agree that translation by post makes a lot more sense.
15. There is something different, odd, and unhelpful about reshares of others' Google posts. Where once a post that had text and a picture with it would get both posted in the reshare, now we get an image and two lines of text from the original.
So if there's something someone posted that was really good — there's no way to show it in your stream.
15 (cont). That was the "Read More (15 Lines)" thing in the Classic G+. Losing that feature is a really big loss of functionality, in my opinion.
16. If you post something to a Community by mistake (easy to do, since that now is the default after you post something there), there is no way to move it back into your stream. I don't know if that's new, but as it's easier to make a mistake in posting, it's a problem I'd like to see fixed.
My complete guide to the new Google+ -> https://plus.google.com/+DenisLabelle/posts/h7sCsFe7DaU
+Dave Hill ,
my guide to the new Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+DenisLabelle/posts/h7sCsFe7DaU