Facebook Versus Google+ One Year On
So I thought I would revisit the subject of Google+ in light of two recent developments. Firstly, the prospect of Facebook officially entering the Search world and secondly, Vic Gundotra announced yesterday that Google+ has just hit 100,000,000 monthly active users out of their 400,000,000 registered users.
Google+ is not strictly speaking a Google take on social, it is more a suite of services and tools for productivity. 12 months in, Google+ is part of strategy of resources that will impact businesses rather than personal lives. You might therefore think that it would restrict the target audience? Not really, as we are all involved in businesses all the time as employees, consumers, owners and producers.
People use Facebook for very specific things such as sharing to and from similar people, places and friends. This is more of a drain on productivity and a distraction you might say. Not everyone needs to share something, but as previously mentioned, EVERYONE is involved in business. Facebook might mention that it has nearly a billion active monthly users but it was unable to utilise Bing to its advantage. Microsoft are working hard to highlight the alliance between Bing and Facebook, introducing the Bing Social Sidebar and, more recently, My Bing News.
This has still, however, not made a dent in Google’s market dominance. To me it seems as though Facebook has a specific use in our daily lives and is extremely successful at that. Google, on the other hand, offers a wide range of tools with uses and applications that appeal to everyone. Is Facebook a one trick pony? Google on the other hand has a ‘good average’ on its entire product range.
To summarise, are Google trying to do social? I would suggest that 100,000,000 active users is not trying! Facebook trying to do search? We will have to see but given the evidence so far, not likely
