Google+ might be the virtual runt of the social media litter, but it's not going to dissappear any time soon; many even expect deeper integration with other Google products in the future, which could make participating on the platform more important than ever.
Google, of course, will need to power up its platform if it hopes to compete with the likes of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the rest of the social media hoarde - and that's just what's it's doing with the introduction of a new feature that enables desktop users to see mentions of a page or personal profile without using the notifications option.
The new "Mentions" tab in Google+ provides an overview of each time a profile or page is referenced on the network, making it particuarly useful for those interested in keeping track of conversations about their brands (or themselves). It's not a ground-breaking feature by any means but it most certainly does show that Google is continuing development on Google Plus.
The new tab is visible at the top of the page between the More and Explore tabs on personal profiles. The mentions tab can be found after clicking on Stream in the pull-down menu on the left-hand side navigation panel for pages.