How Far Google+ Has Become Social Compared to Facebook?

Google+ shows tremendous potential when compared to Facebook popularity. And, to all of our educated guesses, people are excited about this cold war.

Questions I am stuck with:

Who wins? Who looses? What is going to happen next? How this is going to influence our social media marketing plan? Is it good or bad for everyone related to internet world? How great and different it is from Facebook applications? Is it safe enough for users like Facebook is?

Looking for answers:

I am stuck with so many questions. While trying to find the root of these discussions I got a mixed bag response. Some are talking about identity issues, social security and some are discussing about Alexa rankings, popularity, user-friendliness and feature-rich displays. As of now, I can’t help but be a silent spectator. Hope coming days will throw some light into it for me.

Well, I am sure that Zuckerburg too is thinking about some new ideas to integrate.

Before, we go into the detailed analysis of Google+ Vs Facebook here a few things to know about Google+. I am sure you all are pretty aware of Facebook. So no more updates on it. We will proceed with Google+.

What Google+ came up with?

Google+ takes pledge to connect people every single day. It wants you to experience better relationships and interests. If you are a part of Google family, you will enjoy a gamut of new features.

These are as follows:

+Circles – Now you can make a circle of friends who matter the most to you. You can add new people, share news and do anything you like.

+Sparks – Now you can access to contagious content like hyped articles, vibrant photos, funny videos and stuffs that attract everybody. You just need to add your interest and the content will delivered to you on time that you can watch, read and share.

+Hangouts – Now you can avoid the conventional ping method (as you do in instant messaging) to let people know about your entry. The method was awkward and annoying for starters. Because unintentional pinging may interrupt other’s plan and you may end up with no response.

With +Hangouts you can combine casual meetup with live multi-person video.  You can chat with friends in circle when you are free. It is not embarrassing.

+Mobile – Google+ is perfect for sharing mobile experience.  GPS, cameras, Instant Messaging – these mobile features are compatible with Google+.

+ Instant Upload – Now you can upload photos to a private album in the cloud. They are ready to share across any devices.

+ Huddle – Enjoy a new experience of group messaging. Now coordinating with friends in circle has become real-time. Everyone knows what is going on right this moment. No need to exchange text message or phone calls.

It all seems pretty conducive.

But all is not well! There are negative feedbacks too.  Those who started with Google+ struggled a lot.

Here are the examples how?

1. As you log in you will find all your default circles of friends, family, and acquaintances dropping into your contact list. You are yet to decide who is a friend and who the lesser acquaintance. So, there should be boundaries and filtration scheme in place, which is not there currently.
2. You may explore yourself in an unwanted circle, just because you have a folk who is a part of undesirable social circles. So, the name for these circles should remain private.
3. As soon as you connect Google+ to your email accounts, it will spread its tentacles into all your Google connections.
4. You may notice all Google+ conversations appearing on Gmail account. Even you will be seeing notification for every new connection in Gmail Inbox. This is irritating for sure.
5. You may not share images on Google + that are taken from Blackberry. Though, you could do it through Twitter (that connects to Facebook account).

Comparative analysis:

So, there are grey areas which we hope Google+ will solve ASAP. Google+ has to do something like Farmville (Facebook gaming application) to draw new members.

When compared to Facebook, Google+ rocks in many parts. For example Vide Hangouts where you can have instant “face-to-face” group meetings and lots of communal YouTube video sharing.  Now even Facebook plans to introduce some sort of Skype integration very soon.

Indeed we want to see more developments in areas where Facebook users still strive. To best of my knowledge, Google+ is yet to finish its R&D. So, we can always expect more and better from Big G.

Never mind, Google still rocks as a Search Engine to most of us and Facebook a social media giant. Google to reach that place will take some time for sure, if it can.