UPDATED 07:18 EDT / MAY 16 2013

5 Ways Google is Slowly Injecting G+ in Your Life

When Google launched Google+ it went after other social networking sites, specifically Facebook.  Google wants to be the one service people turn to when they connect with others such as friends and family, even paving the way to connect with artists, brands and politicians via Hangouts.

Since its launch, G+ has evolved from being just a social platform to something that can be useful to a person’s everyday activities.  It’s proving the service-side of the Industrial Internet, where consumers drive demand and software supplies it.  Google, Apple and Microsoft are some of the top contenders for Consumer Services, and all three of these platforms rely heavily on developer relations to build apps and support their respective ecosystems.  So it’s no surprise that we see some interesting developments on Consumer Services from Google I/O this week, as the search engine giant looks to integrate its still disparate apps and initiatives into something comprehensive for everyday users.

Central to the Consumer Service experience is G+, which receives regular updates and new features.  This week brought even more points of integration to this increasingly widening catchall for Google’s products and software applications, strengthening its functions and accessibility to reduce reliance on hardware.

Here’s the latest ways in which G+ is slowly injecting itself into your life

 

Content recommendation

Google Reader will be retired on July 1st, and people are already looking for a worthy replacement.  Some have pointed to Feedly and I must say, it’s really useful since you get the news you want quickly and can save articles for later reading.  But Google isn’t about to let Feedly take all the glory, as it clearly hasn’t given up on content discovery, they’re just shifting away to early-adopter interfaces and going mobile.

Google launched a new content recommendation engine made specifically for mobile devices, powered by G+.  Say you’re reading a news article on a mobile site that has enabled the service.  When you reach a certain point in the article or you go back to the top after reading the piece, a small widget appears and recommends related news, based on your G+ friends’ interests or the people you follow on G+.

Google has partnered up with Forbes and is the first new site to feature Recommendations.  News sites with mobile versions can simply enable Recommendations via  their Google+ publisher accounts.

G+ Sign-in

Google recently introduced a new way for people to sign-in to new services with G+.  Much like what Facebook did in the past with its “Sign-in with Facebook” option, some services now allow people to sign-in using their G+ account instead of creating a new account for the service.  This effort eliminates the need to come up with a new username and password as it utilizes your G+ account for those login requirements.  Google sees this as a huge step in conquering not only the web, but mobile as well, that it even retired Meebo in favor of G+ Sign-in.

Photo Sphere

Photo Sphere allows you to take 360º photos which can be viewed by people using G+ or any device running Android 4.2 or higher.  The 360º photos are cool to look at as it has the ability to “transport” you that specific place since you get to see everything like you’re actually there.  Unfortunately, not everyone has an Android 4.2 device or a G+ account so it’s pretty useless until now.  Google has introduced the G+ Photo Sphere widget that allows you to embed interactive 360º slideshow on any site so people will be able to see your stunning photos even if they do not have a G+ account.  The only catch is, you need a G+ account and your photos for the Photo Sphere widget needs to be stored on G+ or PicasaWeb for it to be accessible.

G+ commenting on Blogger

The Google+ commenting system on Blogger was recently introduced.  It allows anyone with a G+ account to comment on Blogger posts plus the author gets to see everyone commenting on their post on Blogger or on G+.  This allowed for faster interaction between blog authors and commenters.  Though at the moment, the G+ commenting system is solely available for Blogger, it’s probably going to be introduced in other Google services in the near future.

G+ gets integrated in GDrive

If you think Google Drive is a boring cloud storage app, think again.  Google recently introduced profile pictures, chat, and anonymous animals on Google Drive via G+.  Google Drive is used to easily share files, and with the introduction of profile photos, anyone with a G+ account using the service, will have his G+ photo appear on the shared file.  This makes it easier for people to see who else has access to the file.

If the file has been shared to a non-Google user, instead of the person’s photo appearing, an anonymous animal will be placed instead, like an Anonymous Dinosaur, Anonymous Dolphin, Anonymous Chupacabra or even an Anonymous Kraken will be used.  And with the chat button on the top right of Google Drive, it’s easier to start a conversation with other people who has access to the file.


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