During the last year, Google+, the search engine giant’s aggressive foray into social media, has grown quickly. Along with that, mind mappers, bloggers and software developers in the field of mind mapping software have set up pages on Google+. Here is a clickable mind map of the top people and companies on Google+.

Visual thinking is quickly growing in importance as a strategy for attacking difficult business problems. But what’s driving this need and why should you learn about it?

Linkedin has evolved into a popular platform for forming groups where professionals can ask questions, get answers and discuss topics and issues of mutual interest. Here are 7 worthwhile groups focused on mind mapping and visual thinking.

One of my goals as the publisher of the leading mind mapping software blog is to serve as an evangelist for this productivity- and creativity-enhancing technology. Here’s something new I’m doing to promote it to the world.

Mind mapping is an incredible team-building tool, according to a recent article by Judith Glaser on WomenEntrepreneur.com. Here are the points that impressed me about the author’s look at the softer side of collaboration and visual thinking.

If you have purchased an iPad and are using one or more mind mapping apps, please share your experiences and impressions so far.

Mindy Gibbins-Klein, the Book Midwife, who has helped to write and publish over 100 books, recently posted a comment to my post on thought leadership and mind mapping that got me thinking more deeply about this topic. Specifically, the role that strategy plays in thought leadership, and how mind mapping software can enable that.

What does the future of mind mapping software look like? Based on the surveys I have conducted of the users of mind mapping software, plus numerous conversations with developers of visual mapping tools, here are some of the essential features and functionality that should be incorporated into tomorrow’s mind mapping software.

Jamie Nast, author of the popular book Idea Mapping and the Idea Mapping Success Blog, is one of the most world’s most prolific trainers and speakers on the topic of visual mapping. In this interview, she explains why it’s critical that executives learn to express their ideas visually, using hand-drawn idea maps and mind mapping software, and the risks of not doing so.

Gael Ltd. has just announced the release of MindGenius version 2.44. The developer characterizes this as a maintenance release, but it does contain several minor enhancements.