Gadgetory

watch out Facebook things just got interesting on Google+ there's a gorgeous new layout a ton of new photo features and an unexpected change to hang out there are over 41 new features so let's dig right in and check out some of my favorites right off the bat you'll notice that this stream of posts looks entirely different you might even say it looks like Pinterest posts are tiled and the design is responsive so as your browser window grows more columns are added if that layouts too cluttered for you though you can always switch back to one column up here also new is super sized photos and videos so here if I click the photo it goes full screen with the media on the left and comments over here Google+ is also auto adding hashtags to posts including yours so that you can surf around related content click on a hashtag and the card will flip around so you can browse and comment on related posts this is awesome for finding new people to follow and killing endless time when you're done browsing around hit the X and you'll be taken back to the original post photos got a massive overhaul turning Google+ into an all-in-one photo storage and editing suite to start everyone gets unlimited storage for standard size pictures which is 2048 pixels unlike any other social network though you can upload full sized photos but they will count against your 15 gigabyte storage which is also shared with Gmail and drive once you upload photos Google wants to make the process of editing and sharing them as fast as possible this is where Google's expertise really shines once your photos are in there auto highlight automatically chooses the best from the bunch with a smart algorithm blurry images duplicates and other black sheep will be removed and only the best will be shared useful for saving time but maybe not so great if you're a control freak other new auto editing features include auto enhance for improving the overall look of the photo and a tool that takes a handful of similar photos and uses them to create one new awesome photo and of course Google is calling it auto awesome finally Google Hangouts isn't just for video chats anymore the new feature replaces google talk and is even a standalone app for iOS and Android in Google+ you'll find hang outs here in the upper corner from this pop-out list you can start a one-on-one or group conversation that can be text only or a video conference some of the new features for chat include fun emoji like cute little Smiley's or even creative ones like symbols and farm animals and as you're chatting these faint avatars will show you how far that person's read best of all and this is huge for hangouts chat notifications will be synced across all your devices so those are some of the highlights of the new Google+ but of course there are many more features for you to check out on your own and in typical Google fashion we do expect more features to roll out for instance we're already hearing that SMS will be incorporated with hangouts for cnet.com I'm Sharon Vaknin you