Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Google + vs. Facebook

It's interesting to watch the ongoing "battle" between Facebook and Google +, as Google + continues to grow. I was invited to Google + a few weeks ago and initially noticed the many similarities between the two. Clearly, Google + had taken many concepts from Facebook - the news stream on the main page, suggestions for new friends, photo albums, etc. The list could go on and on.

But an article struck my interest today when I read that Facebook was going to begin organizing friends in "smart lists." If you haven't used Google +, one of their main selling points is your freedom to be able to sort friends into circles and then choose which circles you share information with. Facebook's "smart lists" appear to be a direct spin off of Google +'s circles. This definitely defends the idea that social media networks such as Facebook, Google +, and Twitter take new features of each and try to improve upon them and make them their own.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hWUBob4DXsrlWF6ociAmmD3xu7vg?docId=73d8967119474aa8aa37401fbb0d1d02

On another note, does anyone know anything about the government potentially choosing to support Google +?

2 comments:

Bryan O'Neill said...

I think it was only a matter of time that Facebook implemented this change. They were going to lose some users to Google if they did not. I am kind of surprised they did it so fast. Putting this option out on Facebook before Google + full release means advantage Facebook. Also, I think it would be interesting if certain people, or the government, started endorsing their preferred site.

Daniel Mochon said...

Another new feature will allow you to follow people on Facebook without becoming their friends, so they are also taking ideas from Twitter.