One-Upped: Google Improves Profiles & Pages In Wake Of Facebook’s News Feed Announcement

Tomorrow, Facebook is announcing big changes to the newsfeed. Today, Google stole a bit of that thunder with 3 changes to Google+ profiles and pages. The changes include local review tabs, simpler information editing and bigger cover photos.

The most noticeable of the changes is the larger cover photo:

Profile pictures are now up to 2120px by 1192px using the 16×9 proportion. That pixelage wasn’t a typo; these pictures can be overwhelmingly huge, sometimes taking up all of your screen, not really sure why or if this is an enhancement. Here’s a look at just how large high res images look:

The profile page has officially been properly “Googleized” with bright Google hues. However, it’s hard not to look at this and think that it looks quite similar to Facebook’s  two-column Timeline layout.

The improved the local reviews section also looks quite Timeline-y and shows more features reviews and interactive information:

To see these changes in action, head on over to your Google Plus page.

Postscript: See our follow-up story, My, What A Big Profile Page & Cover Photo You Have, Google+