If you’re on Google+ go ahead and login to your account and refresh the page. You might be on the list to get a new refreshed interface right now. It doesn’t seem that there’s any rhyme or reason for who gets the update right now, but it is slowly rolling out.

From my own reading, reaction to the new look is mixed. Some say its awesome, some don’t like the tinkering at all. I’m somewhere in the middle, it looks nice, but it is certainly more cluttered than the old look, and that was something I always liked about the old Google+; its simplicity and lightness in weight.

One thing is for sure – Google is trying to step up engagement and discovery with the new update. You now see What’s Trending on Google+ on the right hand side, and there’s a new Explore page that seems to replace the What’s Hot area as a way to discover content outside of your circle. I’ve played around with these new features a bit and like them early on, I’ve found some interesting stuff.

We’ll talk more about this on the next episode of Status Update but for now, try it out yourself and see what you think.

UPDATE: Seems people are griping about the new white space off to the side of the Google+ page. It appears that’s meant to show video when you’re hanging out with people. This way you can continue to scroll and navigate through Google+ and not lose hangout video. Cool feature, but couldn’t they do something else with that space when you’re not hanging out?