Will Google+ Threaten Facebook?

Google launched its social networking service called the Google+ in its latest attempt to break into the social networking realm. While Facebook may have had a head start in the social networking model, but Google is poised to play catch up very soon.

It offers some cool new approaches which Facebook doesn't. And, hence, even though now Google+ has just started, it could soon be a solid alternative to Facebook.

Google+ contains the best of Facebook: sharing and discussing status updates, photos and links, but avoids the worst: It allows you to send different updates to discreet groups, instead of worrying about sharing everything to your 10,000 contacts or everyone on the Web.

Apart from a very attractive and enticing user interface, Google has millions of users availing of its free services like email, Docs etc. besides enjoying a near monopoly in search business, which Facebook and Twitter don’t have.

Here are the reasons why Google+ will beat Facebook:

Grand Plans for Integration:

The biggest dazzle Google+ has is integration. Almost all the existing Google online services, from Search to Documents to Video, have combined together with Google+. If you’ve used any Google products before, you might be surprised that information is automatically imported to your new Google+ account. Without ever leaving the current Google service you are using, you can monitor all Google+ events (updates, messages, etc.) as well as share content with friends.

As Google+ offers to integrate its social line into the whole range of free Google service, why would millions of those people ever want to go to another website for purely social networking purpose?

+Circles:

The second biggest plus of Google+ is that its networking model is more grounded on real life patterns of socializing. The 'Circles' concept presents a way to find friends and socialize with them in a more direct, real-life method. Google says the Google+ model is different from the Facebook model, which doesn’t distinguish between family, close friends and acquaintance.

If you fear being bombarded with what all the 'friends' are sharing, without being able to pick and choose who you would like to interact with and what level, then you would certainly find more peace at Google+.

Not all relationships are created equal. So in life we share one thing with college buddies, another with parents, and almost nothing with our boss, Google says.

Google+ offers an altogether different model of social networking. The core of Google+ is a feature called ‘Circles’ which helps a member organize different kinds of friends at various levels and control the way process of sharing.

Mobile:

Thirdly, in a useful give and take with the Android, your android smartphone will be made a 'seamless appendage of your Google+ social platform. Android is the fastest growing mobile platform for smart phones and it currently has greater market share than Apple’s iPhone. Embedding Google+ within the Android operating system will be a very compelling reason for users to join up to the the Google+ social network.

The integration of Google+ with the Android has maybe the greatest potential to make Google+ a success with mobile and social combining to being a perfect addiction. By unleashing the strength of its Android user base, Google can easily beat the clunky mobile app Facebook has.

Search Engine:

The plain fact that Facebook doesn’t have a search engine will give Google enormous advantage as the rivalry blooms. Google+ users will certainly enjoy the upper hand they have got over Facebook users. Google+ users can unleash the power of Google search and share with their friends real time data coming through Google search. Google has named this feature +Sparks. This means a Google+ user is no longer groping in the dark as to what to share to friends, while Facebook users would still be doing so.

+Hangout:

Google+ offers video chat service called +Hangout, which will score a point over Facebook. Google+ allows to you to do group chat with up 10 people. We can leave video message- it supports Windows, Mac and Linux. While, Facebook video chat don’t allow group chat and it doesn’t seem to support Linux yet.

Video:

YouTube with a massive user base of 490 million users worldwide and adding an integrated Google+ could create a synergy could make it compelling for people to join the Google+ network for additional viral capacity horsepower.

Privacy:

Better privacy settings can be a big plus for Google+ it has been reported. There have been cases of Facebook users quitting the site en masse, unsatisfied by the privacy aspect.

Though, Facebook allows users to download their account information, Facebook makes it hard to exit. Users must wait for two weeks in a ‘deactivation’ period, after these weeks the account is ‘permanently deleted from Facebook. Google already has a much easier system for users exiting services which have carried over to Google.