Google+ has rolled out new features for its profile and pages, including a Local reviews tab and larger cover photos, one day ahead of Facebook’s big News Feed announcement.
The Company announced the updates via Google+ update, noting that a new tab for Local reviews will pull together all of your Local reviews, +1s, and YouTube videos, allowing you to showcase your favorite location or hide the tab in settings. This move alone brings more relevance to Google Places as the growing social network folds in other Google products into their offering.
What will excite most users, however, is the launch of much bigger cover photos with improved aspect ratios, with images up to 2120px by 1192px allowed, which display in 16×9 when completely expanded. Also, profile pictures are now featured in circle form which makes a great deal of sense given the use of the term “circles” in the social network, and helps it to stand out and look modern.
Google says they are “gradually” rolling out the updates, so to learn if you have the updates yet, simply go to plus.google.com/me, and if your account has gotten the updates, you’ll see a large blue bar at the top of your page, prompting you to upload a new cover photo.