Aug 05, 2011 05:04 PM
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(Updated Aug 05, 2011 05:13 PM)
Who will win the Social Networking War - ==Facebook vs Google+?==
Facebook v/s Google Plus – A topic that is much talked about in the Internet World from the last few months. The question on everyone’s mind including me is Can Google plus beat Facebook and win this Social Networking War? We all know that Social Media today has become an integral part not only for the Users but equally important for the Companies as well. Almost all the Companies/Industries from all Sectors from the Top MNC’s, Fortune 500 Companies to the Just Start Ups are using Social Media as a Tool to Promote their Products/Services.
Summary:-
-When it comes to the Internet, Google is undoubtedly the Biggest Giant & is dominating from the last decade because of its search engine product. However when it comes to in the field of Social Services, Google has failed considerably to grab the Social Networking Market.
- Facebook is undoubtedly the forerunner in the field of Social Networking with more than 750 million active users**. It is the king of Social Networking with almost no competitors.
-Google ranks 1st whereas Facebook ranks 2nd and posing as a serious threat to outburst Google from its 1st position. Hence Google has launched Google plus to compete with Facebook and the race for best social networking has begun.
Similarities:-
- Interface:** The interface of Google+ is similar to Facebook. Its functions are also quite similar to Facebook.
- *+1 and like: The like button of Facebook and the+1 button of Google plus are similar.
-Video upload: **Video upload is similar. But as Google owns youtube, the great video sharing site Google+ has advantage to share youtube videos.
Differences:-
-Circles:** You are allowed to group your friends in Google+, but Facebook does not support this feature. This feature is called Circle in Google+. You can share your status to a specific group or to all of your friends. This feature offer much more privacy than Facebook.
-Hangouts:** Google+ supports video chat. You can hangout with your friends by face to face video chat. It also supports multiple user video chat at the same time. There was no such feature in Facebook but recently Facebook in collaboration with Skype has started the Video Chat feature which allows the Facebook user to do video chatting. So, hangout is much more convenient.
- For Facebook, there’s the News Feed but that serves more as a teaser for what your friends’ profiles have to offer. The Google+ stream is the main event of Google+
-Huddle in Google+ v/s Group Message in Facebook:** The feature hurdle allows sending group message to a circle. It allows including the friends of a circle in a group chat. In Facebook, you have to create a group to send a group message. There are many annoying things in a Facebook group. You have to select the group admin and so on. But the group chat is same for both. In both Google+ and Facebook, you are allowed to see live chat between friends.
-Instant Upload of Google+ v/s Picture Upload of Facebook: The instant upload feature of Google+ is questionable. The pictures are not viewed instantly though the name is instant upload. It is similar to Facebook upload. But the graphical interface during upload time is much more aesthetic than Facebook’s picture upload. But of course the issue is privacy. You can share it in Google+ through circle
My Views & Verdict:-
-I’ve been using Google+ a lot lately, and I’ll say I just come away more satisfied because most of what I do is interact with people and share with people.
-On Facebook I, as I suspect most people do, spend most of my time checking out other people’s profiles. Seeing what they’ve been up to.
-Google+ isn’t totally exempt from that but it is way more focused on sharing content than displaying an attractive self, as a social networking website should do.
-Now Coming back to the same question whether Google plus will defeat Facebook and win this Social Networking War? My answer is may be yes or may be no.
a) It’s because Facebook is already an established social networking site and Google plus is already new. But we all know that, Google is the one and only company which can defeat Facebook and grab the market.
b) Google+ assures better privacy and it combines all the useful features of Facebook and twitter. But it does not have own branding as a social network. Time will say who will win the race.
c) Google plus has started off with a bang as it’s already gained 20 million+ users(Note:- It took Facebook three years to get to that point) and where it may have the advantage over Facebook is its ability to offer total internet visibility, as what a brand does on Google+ automatically will have an impact on Google search results.
d) Google plus is able to make such a large splash that many are already calling it a question of “when” rather than “if” they can overtake Facebook and dominate our frivolous online time spend.
It will be interesting to see how this battle pans out…What do you think?*
