The reason Google calls it the "Google+ Project" is that Google+ will become a central part of Google’s whole identity. It will reshape the company.
Facebook, the social giant launched in February 4, 2004, already had a billion users and counting. With its more mature age and wider coverage, Facebook already have an upper hand and a leap of a head start. Google said in April that 170 million users had "upgraded to Google+," but the company has been relatively closed when it comes to specifying how many of those people actually use the social network on a regular basis. Some observers have suggested that it's mainly Google employees and Google loyalists who actively use the service today.
According to Google, its social network has 100 million active users a month less than two years into the service – even the largest skeptic should concede that the service has at least an outside chance of dethroning Facebook at some point (although that might not be its ultimate target, more on that at the end). Facebook’s new user numbers have leveled off a bit. So if Google+ continues to gain active users at a strong pace, it should continue to close that gap, very large as it may be.
That said, it isn’t going to be enough for Google+ to just continue to stay as it is to catch up with Facebook – the lead is too large, and hitting Facebook where it is strongest. Google+ needs to exploit Facebook’s weakest link and show that it will outpace Facebook. The only way possible is to draw people away from using Facebook to using Google+.
Google+, the Social Product Management
The advantage Google has over Facebook for driving people toward using Google+ is integration. Google built Google+ social networking features and tools into almost all of its existing online services from Search, Apps, Android to Documents and Video (YouTube). Google+ is already integrated into the navigation bar at the top right of almost all Google products; this allow users to monitor all Google+ events (updates, messages, etc.) as well as share content with friends without ever leaving the Google service they happen to be using.
Google already had millions of people using Google's free services (Gmail, Docs, Search, etc.), and Google+ bound so tightly to them it eases many unnecessary works when switching to one service to another.
With Circle, Google+ had another advantage in managing the social concept in line with the way its users make friends in real life. Facebook’s Groups also serves a similar feature but it is relatively newer. And with its Google's search background capability, Google+ give users an instant wellspring of relevant information to share with friends.
And with the growing mobile market, Google with its Android OS is able to merge all its products to Google+ directly to its mobile platform in a much better way than Facebook does.
Facebook, the Relentless Social Database
Although Google can collect the data it needs from the subjects of people’s web searches, the content of emails and information from Google+, Google's immense data collection isn't nearly as personal and valuable as the information people willingly provide to Facebook.
Social network data is far more individual and preference-oriented than other kinds of targeting data, and the long-term competitiveness of Google’s advertising business may depend on Google's ability to get that data. And since most people simply don't have room in their lives for two separate social networks, a factor that's helping Facebook tremendously right now.
Facebook with its older state and wider coverage, enables it to give adequate capability to reach more people. Since the social network that was a dorm creation by Mark Zuckerberg is more publicly known, most people would search for their lost contacts and meet new people with Facebook. The popularity beyond its competitors is further enhanced by more people share their information in a daily basis, making it an immense social database collector that worth than its ability to create revenue.
Approach to Privacy
Both Google and Facebook have faced their share of issues when it comes to privacy. Google recently unified its privacy profile despite much scrutiny, but Facebook's seemingly left the matter unconcerned.
With more and more information shared online, people are becoming increasingly aware that large companies like Google and Facebook are collecting the data they enter, and using it to target ads or selling it to third-parties. The constant media coverage of Facebook’s notoriously poor stewardship of personal data has done a lot to draw consumer attention to the largely hidden ecosystem of companies that collect, buy, sell, and trade in personal data.
For instance, Facebook makes users' name, gender, profile picture, networks, friends, "Likes," wall posts, photos, and profile details public by default, which makes those facts searchable.
Facebook has steadily designated more user data as public information because its advertising partners can use the public information to target ads on Facebook. This data will very likely serve to target Facebook ads on other sites in the near future. And it's already Facebook's policy to make these data points public, giving users less chance to keep their personal information private.
Facebook is more dependent on personal social networking data than Google+ is. Google is highly reliant on personal data as well, but does not need to collect everything in a social networking setting. As people become more aware of the uses of their personal data, they may see the Google+ privacy approach as a reason to see it more safe to share private information.
Google enables its users to delete their data when Facebook does't. A Google+ tool called Google Takeout enables users to download data and simply walk away.
The Battle for Personal Data
Time will tell whether Google can assume the social networking throne. With a 2.3 billion internet users worldwide and Facebook already have more than 40 percent of them using its service, and most people does not have time to share on 2 social networks, the idea of Google+ having anywhere near as many users as Facebook seems to be a step to the near impossible. But an era of Facebook domination is not immune to the shifting tastes of people. This can be seen when MySpace that was once unstoppable, slid downhill quickly after Facebook became the cool place to network.
Google has to leverage its obvious advantages to catch up with Facebook. It must put significant energy into expanding Google+ functionality into all of its most popular services. It must promote new features to new audiences that also appeal to businesses. To get a faster pace, Google+ need to evangelize about how it is more respectful of personal data, and more trustworthy with user's data, than Facebook. Google’s need for personal identity and preference information may soon compel it to take dramatic steps to compete with Facebook.
The Mobile World
It isn't a breaking news to say that mobile is the future. Although people will still be using PCs - and seeing ads on them - for some time to come, but mobile - be it a smartphone, tablet or something in between - is where it will be at for the foreseeable future.
Since officially announcing that it was going public, Facebook has been pretty open about the fact that it agrees that mobile is the future, and although it has had a hard time monetizing its mobile apps, the company has taken its chances to become a more mobile focused. However, even with its improved apps, the acquisition of Instagram – which added to Facebook’s already very large mobile user base, there is still a thing the social giant needs to overcome: Facebook is still vulnerable in mobile since it doesn't have its own mobile OS on hundreds of millions of phones like Google, Apple and Microsoft does.
This is a weakness that Google is extremely well positioned to attack Facebook on. While Facebook does have integration into the mobile OSs competing with Android (iOS and Windows Phone), it does not own partnerships like enable it to go in the mobile market. With Android and Google+, Google is the only company in the that has both a very popular mobile OS and a popular-enough social network.
Neither Google+ nor Facebook are just contact lists that users can share links and status updates to. There are a lots of other features - most notably photo uploading and sharing - that both do well and go head-to-head. Both Google+ and Facebook stack up pretty much equally. Google+ has Hangouts, which is by far its best standalone feature, and Facebook has Facebook Pages which offers more than Google+.
Facebook, without a its own OS to integrate into, all of Facebook’s features on a mobile phone seem boxed in when compared to how Google+ is with its Android. Andto make the integration more prominent, Google and Android need to push harder to make people by smartphones
Business and the Social Network
Social networks had enhanced the way businesses connect by giving them the ability to approach customers more socially. Many brands spent their money building up Facebook pages with custom tabs and widgets. But with Facebook's never-ending features added with no opt-out, their efforts left them with less assets to manage.
As a result, brands may be more likely to diversify some of their social investments into Google+ now that they have fewer assets on Facebook. Some may even be downright soured by their lost investments in Facebook as an online platform and looking for a viable alternative. This can be seen by more and more major companies are moving away from Facebook.
With more assets available at Google+, businesses and brands content has been appearing more in Google's search results since they rolled out Search Plus Your World. Businesses with longer sales cycles will increasingly benefit when they create and share content on Google+ during the initial phases of the consumer buying cycle. Consumers will in turn include these brands in their Google+ circles. As a result, brands on Google+ will be more visible in search results when the prospective buyers begin to use more commercially viable terms later on in the sales process.
Customer Satisfaction
Services are made to satisfy. When it comes to serving customers, satisfaction is one of the most important thing consider when a company wants their customers to be loyal. Facebook's reputation for customer satisfaction has dropped while Google+ increases on a customer satisfaction index for the first time and makes it to the top of the social network pyramid.
Despite Facebook is the web's most popular and mostly used social networking site, there are still many people that don't like it. Facebook may be more populous, but Google+ is better-liked.
On the other hand, Google+, which has been said by some as a ghost town, is gaining some traction with a higher customer satisfaction rating, according to a survey, Facebook's rating drops 8 percent to 61 on a 100-point scale, while Google+ makes its index debut with a 78, putting it in line with Wikipedia.
Social media companies were among the 230 companies measured by the index, and the industry consistently has become one of the lowest-rated companies.
According to the report, Google+ does well because it doesn't have traditional advertising, has more focus on privacy, and provides a better mobile experience. Facebook users, on the other hand, complain about ads and privacy concerns, with the most frequent complaint being changes to the interface, which users are unable to opt-out. The most recent was the introduction of the Timeline.
When asked for comment, a Facebook spokesperson said the social network cares about customer satisfaction but did not comment on the report's notes on the specific customer complaints.
"We care about the experience people have on Facebook and that's why we're so focused on building and improving the products we offer," the spokesperson said in a statement. "Giving people the means to interact with the people when they want, where they want and how they want is the most meaningful way for us to make our relationship with people even stronger."
Facebook scored 61 on the list. Other social media sites scored were LinkedIn, Pinterest and Twitter, all with scores that were 69 and lower. Meanwhile, Google remains on the top of the list with a score of 82.
The Soul and Emotion
To be popular is a reason to be successful. But to keep the success to go at a steady pace upwards, need loyal customers/users that keep using the service.
Facebook had and always have the emotional connection that will draw people into it, enough to make them use the service day after day, for hours at a time. Somehow, while there are hundreds of millions of Android phones in the hands of the world's population, Google has not yet been able to forge the bond between the phone and its connected users with an emotional glue. This makes it a little bit lack of that gives it a soul.
Embracing the Future
Social media networks are already a phenomenon. They give the medium for people to share with less to no boundaries. Social networks on the internet has created an environment where time and place don't matter anymore. And with them, humans that are social creatures are able to interact with each others in a much easier manner.
Facebook already reached its milestone with a billion user, and Google+ is increasing its pace by merging its services. Although Google+ has less active users, the total of users that use Google's services which include YouTube, is still beyond Facebook. With
At the end of the day, Google is thinking long-term with Google+. They have made their money with Google Search by indexing content and allowing people to sift through it effectively, all while showing us targeted ads. A massive popularity for Google's social network will be seen when Google does the same with other "objects" on the social web such as brands, people, even physical places. Google+ is the path to this information to Google, and they will unlikely stop before they have mapped and monetized it all.
Google+ will be deeply integrated with Google Glass when the futuristic eye wear becomes available to consumers in 2014.