SiliconAngle editor-in-chief Mark “Rizzn” Hopkins caught up with Seth Sternberg, the product management director for Google+, to discuss the latest upgrades to the search giant’s homegrown social network.

The first new feature Sternberg highlights is the multi-platform sign-in capability that lets Android users to log into their apps using their Google+ accounts. This addition is joined by other recently launched functions, including a contextualized sharing feature that enables users to share content across the entire Google ecosystem without ‘spamming’ their friends. Sternberg explains: traditional feed services such as the system Facebook uses send you notifications about friend developments as they happen, regardless of whether they’re relevant or not. Google’s engine is different because it contextualizes notifications in a way that renders them less intrusive and more attractive at the same time. For example, a comment you made about Costa Rica will only be seen by your friends if and when they search for related content about the Latin American country.

Google doesn’t want applications flooding its users’ inboxes with irrelevant messages, but it won’t go as far as removing real-time notifications. Steinberg says that direct alerts sent via Google+ get pushed into the stream immediately, just like on Facebook, and they’re just as contextualized as Google’s seamless search memos. Steinberg tells Hopkins that “we’re not just sending you traffic, we’re sending you traffic that wants to do something.” He explains that a friend might send you a video, article or restaurant menu – and when you access that menu from your Android phone, Google prompts with a panel that asks you to download that restaurant’s app. After that’s done, the system signs you in using your G+ account and automatically redirects you to the “Order Table” section of the application.