Google has made an adjustment to Google+ with the goal of making it easier for users to find friends and colleagues on Google+, which is ultimately Google’s biggest obstacle in growing user adoption of its social network.
Most users seem to agree that Google+ (the social destination) is a well-designed social network, but their real life friends just aren’t there like they are on Facebook.
Google has replaced the “Circles” icon in the app ribbon on the left-hand side with “Find People” (the icon still shows actual circles).
“Click through and you’ll find a new page with a list of people you might want to add,” says Google’s Sean Purcell, announcing the new feature. “We’ll show you people you’re already talking to on Gmail and other Google products at the top of the page. To get even more suggestions, it’s easy to search by your school, workplace, or other email accounts.”
“If you want to organize the people you’ve added a bit further, you can always click the ‘Your circles’ button at the top of the page,” he adds. “From there you can use the circle editor to see all of your circles and decide who belongs in each one.”
I’m not sure if the feature will make a huge difference in user adoption of Google+, but it I don’t suppose it can hurt.