With each passing month the Social Networking world grows even further. As societies become increasingly techno-centric, people are more and more driven to share and exchange ideas, concepts, and personal feelings over a growing social network. Facebook, currently, holds the top spot among user-ship and popularity but other networks are hoping to cash in on the myriad possibilities that come along with the vast success of having a popular social network. Google recently released “Google Plus” in hopes to capture a portion, if not all, of Facebook’s vast, 500 million strong and growing, base.
It seems that the search engine giant, Google, is once again attempting to challenge Facebook’s control over the online social business and Google Plus will soon be released in an attempt to do just that. Google even admits that this new site is small but it’s growing fast. They’re still field-testing it so it hasn’t been released to the public just yet but it will be, and soon. Invitations have only been sent to a small number of users and journalists for reviewing and testing purposes. Google doesn’t want to prematurely release Plus because it could derail the project before it even has the chance to be successful. This is a big project for Goolge and there’s a lot riding on it and the company wants everything to be just right.
Google Plus has a similar rollout strategy that it used for Gmail and Google Voice and if everything goes according to plan then the build up for demand will follow in similar suit. Bradley Horowitz, who is currently overseeing Google’s communications products and social applications, recently stated that, “We’ve created a system that’s based on the concept of circles, so that I can take my college friends and drag them into a circle called ‘college buddies,’ and I can take my work colleagues and drag them into a circle that’s called ‘work friends.’ And I can share selectively the parts of myself with those circles that I choose to.” This is just one of the features that Plus offers to users in hopes to better manage and categorize the public’s growing desire for compartmentalized social groups.
Google is, in other words, trying to keep friends, groups of friends, and other various networks separate and more easily managed. There are similar features on other social sites but this is, by far, the most comprehensive approach, to-date. Facebook does have the feature called “groups” by many users have commented on its clumsy nature and various management difficulties. With Google Plus, users will be able to upload a photo or news and the user has far more control over who it goes to and who’s going to see it. You’ll be able to access it just the same as any other site through your computer, 4G Android Phone, or other mobile device.
Google also seems very committed to privacy with this new venture and is giving users greater control over content and stored information. This has been a big issue in the last couple years and more people are concerned with out their information is being shared. Google Plus is also promising to allow users to delete their information from its own servers, which is an option that Facebook users have never gotten.
It’s not clear as to how successful the new social networking site, Google Plus, will be but it’s generating a lot of buzz. It doesn’t matter how successful Plus will be, Google has a long way to go before it can come even close to Facebook’s numbers. Then again, MySpace was the reigning social site until Facebook came along. If Google Plus generates the kinds of figures that many think it will, the public is likely to see a long drawn-out social networking slap-fight for dominance.
I think Google + rocks in near time. It has lot cool features.
I like the “hangout”, able to do video group chat(no limit on no of people)
I agree with you Sridhar! The ‘hangout’ feature is a really good addition also.
Yeah, I actually tried this feature with a few friends a couple of days ago. It was really fun 😀
Lucky you. I received an invitation to Google+ but they are “over capacity”, so I have to try again later!
I was planning to invite you but since a couple of days ago, Google has blocked the “loophole” so we cannot get people to get in at this stage.. hoping they will open for public real soon
So that’s why I heard some people last week was able to signup even though they were “over capacity”… damn, I’m late to the party as usual 🙂
Hey Klaus,
I’ve got same kinda message from them… Over Capacity… 😆
Well it’s definitely a big challenge for Google to get so many users as Facebook has. But I think Google offers a lot more than Facebook also at security and privacy as at functionality.
I really like the circles of friends Google is introducing. I don’t want to share all my pics or information with all the friends I have. There are some I only want to share with my family for example, and others that I only want to share with close friends and not all my work mates. So Google has a lot of strong points for me.
The only problem with all new social networks is the friends.. How many of your friends will want to move from Facebook to a new one? Maybe a few 🙁
But I’ll definitely use Google+ for my online friends as I’ m trying to keep my Facebook private & personal – which I failed to do in the past lol
I checked the video tour and it looks really nice. The thing is I can’t imagine people switching from Facebook to Google +… But yeah, it has some cool ideas that facebook doesn’t have. I like the group text idea!
-whoops, forgot to check comluv tickbox!
i don’t think that Google will be able to overtake Facebook.
So many people are experts at using Facebook and have mastered it over the years.
I think Google’s best shot at getting a lot of users to use the Google Plus is to allow anyone who wants to try the beta version. word will start spreading and eventually everyone will be wanting to try it.
By keeping the trials limited, word is not spreading amongst the people who do not read technology blogs so they will stay on Facebook
I think this is just too early to call it a facebook challenger, it has some privacy problems.. Might be changing grounds for twitter but not for facebook though!
I think Google is really trying to take it to Facebook on the security and privacy issues. And that’s great. What I’ve been waiting for, in fact. I’ve avoided Facebook thus far, but I will genuinely consider signing up with Google +.
I’ve got invitation from one of my facebook friends, but unfortunately I can’t join google plus… they shows me something like Over Capecity…. 🙁
We know that facebook has 185 million daily users.
We also know that Google is known as BIG G. Big G can do anything what it wants. Facebook has its know identity and popularity. Not now, may be in future, Google+ may become facebook challenger.
I wonder whatever happened to Orkut. Wasn’t that supposed to be Google’s answer to Facebook? Has it completely abandoned that one…?
Yes, I thiink Google can pose serious competition for facebook in near future and already there is a craze for google plus here. Some good features such as chat seems to be quite popular amomg teens.
Google Plus will for sure have a difficult time catching up with Facebook. People are aware that Google launched this to compete with Facebook and sometimes that’s not a good thing. People tend to stick with what came out first. This is why Apple seized to compete with Microsoft. They are going to find a way to innovate Social Media.
Just keep checking, because once you have an invitation, you will be able to join when they open up for new registration!