Google Changes “Circles” Tab To “Find People”

Google has renamed the Google+ “Circles” button in the toolbar to “Find People”, a move suggesting further changes to come.

Google is supposedly making the changes to keep up with the constant stream of new members joining Google+ every day. In September 2012, Google reported that it had surpassed the 100 million monthly active user mark. A few weeks ago, the Global Web Index reported that, in December 2012, Google+ registered almost 350 million monthly active users. In just four months, Google+ increased its MAU figures by 250 million.

“With so many new people signing up for Google+ every day, it’s easy to miss friends and colleagues who’ve recently joined”, said Google employee Sean Purcell on his Google+ page when the update was made. “So today we’re making some updates to Google+ to help you find people you care about and add them to your circles.”

The “Circles” icon has been renamed to make navigation easier for new users who might not know what Google+ Circles are. Google were concerned that new users would have difficulty working out how to add their friends and colleagues: a function vital to the usability and popularity of the service. Renaming the button “Find People” makes its function self evident to Google+ novices.


Clicking on the “Find People” button takes the user to a list of suggested people to add. On the right of the page there is a list of suggested areas to look, including “Find Coworkers”, “Find Classmates” and “Gmail Contacts”, which allows users to see people who they are already talking to on Gmail. Furthermore, there is a “Connect Services” button with options to link the users Yahoo and Hotmail accounts to their Google+ profile to find more contacts.

Although the “Circles” button in the toolbar on the right of the screen has been changed, Google+’s defining Circles feature still exists in the form it was before: users can categorise the people they add into circles for colleagues, friends, family, acquaintances or following, managing their circles in the “Your Circles” tab at the top of the page. Users can also still create circles if the pre-existing options don’t fit the description of their relationship.

Do you like the changes Google has made to Google+?