At Google I/O this morning the search giant announced that it has 41 new features that are coming to Google+ today, along with a redesigned news stream.

The newly designed stream is aimed to give Google+ users a deeper experience by adding multiple columns of content and ‘smart hashtags’ to connect posts to other Google+ users who aren’t circled.

Google+ news stream now shows users three columns of content. Photos and video can be resized to take up multiple columns. If you hate the new view you can always go back to the one column view you’re used to if you want.

Along with the newly designed stream, Google is introducing ‘smart hashtags’ to Google+ that work similar to Twitter’s except Google will automatically hashtag your Google+ posts with whichever ‘smart hashtags’ it feels is appropriate. You can add your own and delete Google’s suggestions, but the benefits of  the new Google+ hashtag system is  a deeper experience with the connect as more posts become interconnected so you can really explore your interests.

The Google+ update should roll out to users later this afternoon.