Google+ (2012)

Google+, the online social network from Google, saw a pretty update in April 2012 that introduced changes to both the design and features. Many of the changes, such as the ability to add a large, horizontal, splash photo to your profile page, are extremely similar to features in Facebook, which has a space for a splash photo at the top of a user's Timeline.

Another Facebook-like feature that has rolled out to Google+ users is the "view-as" tool, which lets you see your own profile from the point of view of another person. The ability to view your own page as another person helps you see precisely what information is and is not visible to him or her, helping you maintain control of your privacy.

While the large photo space at the top of a user's profile can be a large, horizontal image, the user also has the option to instead pick a layout that features five smaller images.

In this "explore" area, notice in the middle of the page the slider bar for following hot topics. You can elect whether you want to see "what's hot" on your home feed, and if so, how much.

The games section of Google+, which has been growing slowly, has a new design as well with a nice interactive feature: When you scroll over any game image, a brief synopsis of that game appears, as shown here for Shadow Fight.

Hangouts also saw a bit of a revamp. One of the biggest changes in this area is how you find hangouts that you might like to participate in.

One of the more controversial (or at least curious) changes in the design has to do with the amount of whitespace left open on the right half of the screen. Some have speculated whether that space would fill in later with apps or advertisements.