Google+ Threatens Facebook, China and Google: True or False?

Google+, Google's ambitious project to redefine the future of social media, has created a huge buzz. Google+ has posed threat to different groups in numerous ways - it has attacked boldly on the present social network king Facebook, while China immediately blocked the access to Google+ with its "great firewall", and Google's unpreparedness to face the massive influx of traffic has forced the beta version of Google+ to close its invitation door.

Google has a history of attempts and failures when it comes to rolling out social networking services. In 2004, Google's social networking site Orkut debuted and disappeared - with a minor popularity in Brazil and India. Open Social, launched in 2007 with the aim to create an open standard for social network applications, faded away as Facebook monopolized the spotlight. 2009 saw Google's struggles in the social-based communications system Wave and Buzz, both stirred the market but did not survive.

However, this time around, Google's timing for introducing a renewed experience in online social networking is impeccable. If 2008 saw Facebook's rapid growth beyond industry expectations, 2011 saw saturated markets like the U.S. and Canada growing hungry for something fresh.

Google+ v.s. Facebook

Indeed, Google+ seems to be a real rival of Facebook, containing the best of the social network giant while avoiding its worst.

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While there seems to be nothing original with Google+, from its video chat to news feed, group texting and grouping, Google+ is likely to let you organize the mess Facebook created.

Rather than constantly connecting with all of your friends (including some strangers who randomly friended you) like on Facebook, Google+ allows users to create groups through a feature called "Circles," so they can select whom to communicate what, by choosing discrete groups of friends to send different updates. This way you can secure more privacy and more control, at which Facebook is largely reputed as sloppy and insensitive. With the new facial recognition, Facebook seems to be growing in its insensitivity. Instead, Google aims to offer a clean and organized realm of social networking.

"Circles is an interesting feature. While Facebook does support the group function, Google Circles is a more intuitive approach and seems to mimic the way people work in their lives. Most tend to associate themselves with a group of people and certain environments," said tech analyst Charles King from Pund-IT.

The Google+ customizations are flexible, giving users freedom to share their location, content , and friends within Circles. Setting up Circles require simpler steps and less click with simple drag and drop options. The potential to integrate all of Google's website services such as Gmail, Picasa, YouTube, and Google Maps offer major advantages for Google+. A platform can be setup where functions can be consistent throughout the user's Google+ experience.

Circles, so far most favored by analysts and users, could be Google+'s biggest strength as it is the biggest problem with not only Facebook but with Twitter as well.

Other sparkling features in Google+ include Streams, Sparks and Hangouts.

And Google's got a wider heart - Google+ does not seek to be a stand-alone social networking service, like Facebook, but instead it is targeted at making everything Google social, capturing market share so that everywhere you go, Google can be with you, but will not trap you inside the service.

Through data liberation, Google allows you to pack up and take your data away from Google+ in case you decide to leave the service. In this aspect, Google+ is a stunning contrast to Facebook, which received countless complaints from users over how difficult it is to leave Facebook and take their data with them.

One aspect of Google+ may give Facebook serious chills. Once you sign into Google+, every single Google site you use gets a toolbar across the top with some new icons related to the service, noted Business Insider. A little notification window among the icons will turn red whenever someone adds you to the Circle or comments on your sharing. The little red button will continuously remind users to check the Google+ site. If 200 million Gmail users and 1 billion Google.com visitors sign into Google+, it will be not so far before Google+ overtakes Facebook in the number of users.