Businesses using Google Hangouts no longer need to give their users Google+ accounts. Creating a Gmail account no longer requires you to create a Google+ account. Reports suggest that the Google+ Photos service will eventually be separated from Google+ as well.

So even if Google+ itself isn’t actually going away, it’s clear that it’s no longer as central to Google’s product strategy as it once was.

via Google+ isn’t going anywhere, says guy in charge of Google+ | Ars Technica.

In short, Google seems to be backing away from the original Google+ strategy. The report states that Google+ will no longer be considered a product that competes with Facebook and Twitter, and that Google’s mission to force Google+ into every product will end. With this downgrade in importance comes a downgrade in resources.

TechCrunch claims that 1000-1200 employees—many of which formed the core of Google+—will be moved to other divisions. Google Hangouts will supposedly be moved to Android, and the Google+ photos team is “likely” to follow. “Basically, talent will be shifting away from the Google+ kingdom and towards Android as a platform,” the report said.

The strange part is that both of these teams create cross-platform products. So if the report is true, there will be a group inside the Android team making iOS and Web apps, which doesn’t seem like the best fit.

via Report: Google to end forced G+ integration, drastically cut division resources | Ars Technica.

Google has announced a revamping of Google Maps and it is much more than a few changes. It is a reworking of the entire Google Maps interface from the group up, designed to make Maps more intuitive for users.

One major change is users can now click on any area of a map, and Google will respond by showing you information about what is in the area that you could be interested in, such as restaurants, businesses, and hotels. This is designed to make it easy for visitors to see what is near a particular location, such as discovering what is located near a hotel when someone is visiting a city.

There is much more connection with Google+ and what they display on the map popups, meaning it is much more critical for businesses to make sure their Google+ page is active with correct information, including hours and photos, and user reviews of their business.

MORE:  Google Maps Gets a Brand New Look | ClickZ.

A cloud of common sense just landed on Google, and instead of offering users separate storage caps for Google Drive, Gmail, and Google+ photos, the sultan of search has decided to offer up 15GB of unified storage for free. In doing so, users are in complete control of how much each of Google’s cloud services can hold, which is particularly great if you’re deeply invested in Drive and/or Google+ Photos, two services that were previously limited to 5GB combined.

“With this new combined storage space, you won’t have to worry about how much you’re storing and where,” Google stated in a blog post.

MORE: Going Full Circle: Google Users Get 15GB Shared Across Gmail, Drive, and Google+ | Maximum PC.

Google has launched a page and a set of tutorials aimed for webmasters whose site was hacked.

Specifically, Google explains webmasters how to deal with Google’s search warning that a site is dangerous, which usually appears if a hacker has infected the site with harmful code.

“Every day, cybercriminals compromise thousands of websites. Hacks are often invisible to users, yet remain harmful to anyone viewing the page — including the site owner,” claims Google on the site titled “Webmasters help for hacked sites.”

via Google Offers Help to Webmasters Whose Sites Were Hacked.

When Google unveiled its latest mobile operating system to the world last week, the company asked a reserved but extremely confident man named Hugo Barra to grab the microphone, and celebrate Android 4.1 as the best mobile operating system the world has seen. It couldn’t have been easy to sing the praises of an OS code-named “Jelly Bean” with a completely straight face, but Barra, Android’s director of product management, was cool and composed as he shared Android’s latest killer features.

There was the new graphically enhanced search tool, Google Now. There was the new voice-based search assistant — Google’s answer to Apple’s Siri. And there was also a new piece of hardware — the Nexus 7 — which would show off Android’s full potential. Barra anchored all these announcements, reporting the Google I/O news that the world was most interested in hearing.

And now he speaks directly with Wired about Google’s mobile future. We sat down with Barra last week at Google I/O to pick his brain about the Nexus 7, and all the other key Android announcements. Here is the edited conversation.

READ MORE:  Android Director: ‘We Have the Most Accurate, Conversational, Synthesized Voice in the World’ | Gadget Lab | Wired.com.

Launched by Google in 2011, Google+ is the latest social networking tool on the block. Businesses of all types, but especially those in the consumer goods market, are giving the platform a try. In this presentation, attendees will discover the pros and cons of using Google+ from a business point of view, while also learning about how other brands are using the platform.

via How Brands are Using Google+.

Google has revamped its image search for faster and better results, the company announced Wednesday.

In the next few days, images will be displayed in an inline panel so that users can quickly flip through a set of images using their keyboard, Google announced in a blog post.

“Based on feedback from users and webmasters, we redesigned Google Images to provide a better search experience,” Hongyi Li, Googles associate product manager, wrote.

As a result, it will be “faster, more beautiful and more reliable,” he added.

MORE:  Google Unveils Faster Image Search [PICS].

Google, in an expansion of its role as an Internet Service Provider, introduced Tuesday New York City’s biggest contiguous free public Wi-Fi network in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan.

Google’s choice of location for the giant network is no surprise: Chelsea is home to Google’s New York headquarters, meaning employees out at lunch breaks or area meetings will be able to remain productive even while out of the office. The network runs between Gansevoort St. and 19 St. from 8th Ave to the West Side Highway and in area public spaces, including the Chelsea Triangle, 14th Street Park and Gansevoort Plaza.

The secured network will also be used by businesses, residents and students in the area, and it will cover the outdoor areas of the Fulton Houses, a housing project owned by the New York City Housing Authority.

MORE:  Google Rolls Out Biggest Free Wi-Fi Network in New York City.

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