Google Plus continues to make changes to their interface by making feature changes and moving content and options around. I am not surprised, as Google is constantly tweaking their search results pages for a better user experience. So why shouldn’t they do this with Google Plus?

The What’s Hot and Recommended on Google+ feature, which previously was available on the “Home” drop-down menu, has gone away. Now, this content appears on the Explore tab.

As you can see, my personal list of tabs is “SEO” and “Dallas” circles, and then it shows the “Explore” tab. By clicking the Explore tab, you’ll see the most popular posts on Google Plus, from other users (other than from your own circles).

What’s interesting to note is that while Google+ has removed the What’s Hot page (option), they have not updated their online help for this option. It still says that you can find the What’s Hot content by going to the Home drop-down list:

To see What’s hot: Choose Explore What’s hot from the Google+ navigation menu.

Apparently now Google+ doesn’t want us to know that this content is hot, they want us to Explore the content. It’s not a really big difference between the two, but there is a connotation that the “What’s Hot” content is more “exciting and thrilling”, because it’s “What’s Hot” rather than actually content that is something that we should just “Explore”.

What I’d like to know is that when they made this change from What’s Hot to Explore, has the number of shares and +1s on this content gone up or down?

Here’s a tip: If you go to your Explore tab on Google+, then these are the hottest or most-shared recent posts on Google+. To build your following and connect with influencers, you’ll want to share this content and connect (and follow) these people. You can also look at the Ripples of these posts and see who the influencers are and connect with them, as well.

Bill Hartzer is Globe Runner’s Senior SEO Strategist. Connect with him on Google+ or on Twitter as Bhartzer.

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