Google Plus Gains Events – This Week in Google Plus
With the Nexus 7 Tablet being released last week, the Googleverse has been buzzing with reviews and anticipation for Google’s next move to compete with both Apple and Amazon. However, there were still some noteworthy additions and updates within the world of Google that may have been overshadowed over the past 7 days. Here are the highlights!
New Google Plus Features
Google Adds Events to Google Plus
You may have noticed a Calendar icon with the word “NEW” over it appear on the left side of your Home Page on Google Plus. This is Google Plus’ brand new Event feature that intends to rival Facebook’s well-known Event feature. What sets this feature apart from Facebook’s is the amount of interaction it gives attendees of the event created with the event itself, as well as other attendees.
When creating an event, you will have a stream of background images to choose from and have the ability to add your own if you want to make the event more personal to you. One of the biggest reveals for this feature is when attending an event, if you have the Google Plus app on your phone and synced to your profile, any pictures that you take with your phone will automatically be posted on the event page and be available to be seen by any other person attending the event! Think of going to a concert that has been set up through the Event page of Google Plus and seeing everyone else’s pictures from the same concert in real time. The pictures that receive the most +1s will be features at the top on the main event page as well.
And what happens if you don’t post any pictures of the event directly to Google Plus automatically? Google will just discretely send you an email a few days after the event to remind you to post your pics if you took any. This new feature will make any Google Plus event an online experience, which is exactly what Facebook is lacking in its own feature.
Google Input Tools Gets an Introduction
A new add-on for Chrome and Android users is Input Tools, a feature which lets users type to each other in over 80 different languages. This is especially useful just for the fact that Google’s main language is English, and there are countless words from other languages that cannot be accurately represented in English.
Instead of non-English speaking users struggling to find a way to express themselves in the English language, Google cut out the middle-man and now allows users to use their native language over the web. Check out the video above, and also learn more and try it out for yourself here.
Google Plus News
Concept Art Dictionary Created Using Google Images
Every now and then, something is created in the Google world that makes you step back and say, “Wait….what?”. The new “Google Book” is just that. Created by Ben West and Felix Heyes, two London based artists/designers, have taken every word in a standard Oxford English Dictionary (around 21 thousand words) and matched them with the first picture result seen in Google Images, creating a 1,240 page visual dictionary.
Call it what you will, but this actually may end up giving Google amazing feedback of how their algorithm is working within Google Images. At the very least, it gives readers a view of how we are fairing as an internet culture in 2012.
Google Maps Officially Goes Offline (in a good way)
Selected sections of Google Maps are now available to download straight to any Android device! When you do have internet or data connection with your phone, you have the option to download any area that you select straight onto your phone. The feature will also let you know how big the download will be, depending on how far zoomed in you are in your selected area. With the new map area downloaded, you can bring it up anytime whether you have a data connection or not and enable the GPS function to see where you are! Check out the video below to see exactly how this new Google Maps option will work.
See you all next week for another run-down of all the recent news surrounding Google!
Happy plussing,
-Mark Gundersen
About Mark Gundersen
Current blogger for UpYourPlus; sharing the most up-to-date features and news surrounding the world of Google and social media with all Google Plus members.