Google+ gets a makeover, focuses on Collections and Communities!

Google is rolling out an updated design for the web and mobile versions of Google+. Starting today, users on the web will be prompted to switch to the new design if they wish.

The new design focuses more on the Collections and Communities features of the service. Collections is, well, a collection of posts matching a certain interest, such as photography. Community is where people can form a community based around an interest for like minded people to share and communicate in.

No new features have been added, but with the new design Google is putting more focus on these features by giving them a prime location in the new side menu.

Google is also redesigning its G+ app across platforms. Following the website redesign roll-out, Google will also be updating the Android and iOS apps with the same design.

The web redesign is now rolling out. Look out for the option to switch to the new UI. You will be able to go back to the older design if you wish as the new site doesn’t have all the existing features at the moment.

Google brings Gmail, Google Drive, and Google+ together into a 15GB shared pool of cloud storage

In its continuing quest to streamline its online services, Google brought three of its most popular goodies under the same roof. In its official Gmail blog, the search giant announced that, beginning over the next couple of weeks, Gmail, Google Drive, and Google+ will merge into the same 15GB pool of shared cloud storage.

The move by Google, allows users to allocate their available storage any way they like between the three services. An updated Google Drive storage page will be updated to show the usage of the storage space.

Google has done away with the old Gmail storage upgrade plans. New ones will apply for all three services starting at $4.99 a month for additional 100GB.

#Finally! Facebook to adopt hashtag support!

You’ve probably all seen the meme built on the geek rage over the use of hashtags on Facebook. The hashtag has never had a useful function in Facebook as it has in its birthplace of Twitter and summer home of Google+, but the hashtag has always had a destiny on the Internet and it’s getting one step closer to being the web standard it deserves to be. A new report says that Facebook will finally adopt hashtag support.

The think about the hashtag is that it is an immensely helpful tool in the online world. People needed an easy way to gather around events and topics (as inane as they may be), and so the hashtag was born. That’s why we’ve always been annoyed at the rage hashtags on Facebook always drew, because those hashtags weren’t useless. They were telling Mark Zuckerberg that he can’t ignore hashtags, and had to add them to Facebook.

According to the Wall Street Journal, that day is coming. No idea when it will happen, but the report says that Facebook is definitely working on adding hashtag support. Facebook already supports tagging people by using either the Twitter standard @ symbol, or the Google+ standard + symbol. This is pretty cool for a tradition created by early Twitter users.