There&#x27;s a meta-level of this roll-out that I find quite striking.<p>1. Google have previewed this as an <i>optional</i> experience<p>2. Which users can <i>roll back</i> from. Unlike earlier major releases, it&#x27;s not dumped all-at-once, and it&#x27;s not a &quot;if you try it there&#x27;s no going back&quot; option (as CoverPhotos were a few years back).<p>2. The changes were undertaken with user-involvement. Google are loudly touting that they solicited input from users, even visiting them at home, to come up with the new design. Mind, I wasn&#x27;t part of this, but that appears to be a striking change from previous roll-outs, which were very much &quot;we know best&quot; events.<p>Last December we saw a sneak preview of the New Google+ Development Process:  a substantial change to the Notifications mechanism ... which was all but universally panned. I wrote a long and piquant post about how damned important G+&#x27;s Notifications mechanism was to the site (it&#x27;s among the few parts of the service which are really quite compelling). Mucking with that is dangerous business.<p>In less than 24 hours, Google reversed the push.<p>I was absolutely stunned. Said so.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;plus.google.com&#x2F;+BalajiSrinivasan&#x2F;posts&#x2F;Wntg5XoEHmb" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;plus.google.com&#x2F;+BalajiSrinivasan&#x2F;posts&#x2F;Wntg5XoEHmb</a><p>I&#x27;m not sure how the changes here will look, I&#x27;m using the Android client, not desktop, for the present. I suspect I&#x27;ll have some sharp criticisms (I usually do). But I&#x27;m seeing some encouraging signs in the <i>process</i>.