Alright maybe that title is a little misleading. There can be more than one social network at a time. The thing is the new kid on the block never seems to hang tough. (yes it was a NKOTB reference) MySpace has already showed us that bigger does not always translate to long term winner in the Social Network landscape.
That being said Facebook has over 700 million users. They are not going anywhere anytime soon. Google tired with Buzz and failed very publicly. This time around they are at it again but with Google Plus. A funny thing happened though. Everyone loved it. It was not a clone of anything else. It was not trying to be the next Twitter or a new Facebook. It was Plus and people loved it.
Google+ is now open to the public which means the floodgates are wide open too. I have been getting email after email that someone has added me to their Circles. I have no idea who half these people are. Unlike Facebook people can add you at will but you don’t have to add them back if you do not want to. I took one step further and made a circle called Unknown. Facebook clearly feeling the heat has retooled its NewsFeed so you can see all your friend’s updates in real time like Twitter does.
Google+ now lets you turn on Hangouts into broadcast platform. They also have search in Google +. Not sure why this was not on before. It sure should have been put in the beta. Never the less it is in there now. Google had almost 20 million users and that was just during the beta. Now that it is open to the public. Look for it to get about 100 million by the end of the year maybe sooner. On the flip side of that Google+ is so rich that it could be too much for most users that are use to Facebook’s simple layout and web games. People that jump to Google + might go right back to Facebook because of that.
Google believes in Google+ simply because employees won’t get paid if it does not succeeded. The fact that bonuses are tied to Google doing well on the Social Network market place is not lost of the hard workers over there. They have gone all out to make Plus the best it can be. One could say that Plus has already done what it needs to. Now they can do is sit back and wait to see if people bite.
Google+ is loved by us early adopters and tech-savvy folks. We also are the people writing about this tech world. So good job Google but we are not the ones you need. We would try just about any tech network just to test it out. What you need is the average Joe & Jane Doe to join your network to not just look around but stay long term. Facebook vs. Google+ bout fight will go on for a long time. There will be no clear winner anytime soon. Facebook is the champ and Google + is the little contender that could.
There’s a healthy competition between the great giants Facebook and Google plus. Before its launch there was a great buzz about Google Plus, which kept people anxious and anticipating it. It began with a reach of over 10 million active users, whereas Facebook is an established social networking website with a global reach of over 750 million as of 2011. However, Google has an edge over Facebook because with Google Plus you get other services like Adwords, Adsense, etc. But only time will tell who packs more muscle power!
Honestly – Plus was not new. It was a tweak on FB. I seriously doubt that they will be successful, having been on since day three of Beta. There are simply not enough reasons why people should move from FB as it is today – and like you say, the tech savvy early adopters are NOT the ones that will make or break it. It’s the moms, dads, grandpas, daughters and regular folks who just recently made it onto FB. Getting them to move will take a heck of a lot more than just a few different features. My take is: social is dead. Or, not dead – but done. More networks aren’t needed, unless they’re connected to the existing ones.
We’ll see if they will beat Facebook.
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