Google has introduced the Google+ on a limited scale at present. Before you jump on a search to join, it is at present open on an invite only basis. It may be because Google first wants to test the market and avoid unnecessary publicity and questions regarding Google Buzz or perhaps to create suspense. What is more important though, is whether Google+ can outperform Facebook or will be, yet another one of Google’s less successful social media network rollouts.

No doubt, Google is the best when it comes to search engines and many Facebook users don’t appreciate Facebook’s lack of concern about their privacy. Whether Google+ will replace Facebook completely will depend on the features offered, marketing of the social network, and of course integration with other applications. At this stage it is just another platform for social communication, but it can grow into a Google Giant.

There are positives and negatives as with all applications. The Google Plus, written as Google+ is perhaps not the best of names to select. For one, it definitely creates confusion with the Google +1 Button. Upon request to post about Google+ and Facebook, the original post was written about the Google+1 Button and Facebook Like, simply because of confusion. To further add to the confusion, the Google +1 feature in Google Plus differs from the Google +1 Button used for searches in Google. With all the plusses one can almost get into a state of total puzzlement and leave everything altogether out of fear of making a mistake when talking to people.

Google has named it a project rather than one of their new products with the idea that it would be seen as one of their features rather than a product taking on the social network giant Facebook. According to Google it is not intended as competition for Facebook, but rather another way of connecting and sharing, although it certainly comes across as a social network just as Facebook.

Similarities And Differences Between Google+ And Facebook

Facebook allows users to create specific groups and lists of contacts. The Google+ version is the Circles where the user drags and drops contacts into various Circles, allowing for sharing of information with specific groups only. If you are thus not comfortable sharing information about your cat that just died with the whole bunch of contacts, you will be able to select a Circle with contacts who will give the required sympathy. It will enable the user to split social and office life gossip. It is better than the friend lists in Facebook in the sense that the Facebook lists don’t give you the opportunity to selectively share information with a few friends. You can make group posts though with Facebook Groups. You normally end up making groups to share specific information with and it doesn’t have the easy drop and drag feature of Google+.

On the negative side for the Circles – it is still a lot of work, especially if you have the 100 closest friends in a circle and another 900 contacts to organise. Apparently not the easiest to use in the beginning, it becomes a rather useful feature once you get the hang of it.

Newsfeed & Stream

Facebook has the newsfeeds which enable users to see what their friends have posted. One can stream updates, the most recent posts or everything.  Google+ has Stream, located at the top of the box where you post your status updates, photos and other content you want to share. You will select a Circle from which you want to get a stream unlike the Facebook newsfeed option that shares information about everything posted recently, updates or all.

Making It Easier To Share Information With Non-Google Plus Users

Google+ has a feature that enables you to still share information with users that only have email addresses and have not joined the network formerly by adding them to one of your circles. They will be able to see what you have shared with the particular circle of friends. You can also follow a person that has not added you as a friend, provided they share information publicly. What they share with their particular circles will still be a mystery. The only negative about sharing with people who have not befriended you is that you can easily fill their email inboxes since they will be notified when you post for a circle where their details appear.

Importing Contacts

At present you will not be able to import friends from Facebook. You will be able to use all the emails, but for understandable reasons, Facebook at present doesn’t allow for exporting of friend details to Google+. As such you will have to create your contact base in Google from scratch, but can use present Google contacts to get it jump started. The upside is that one can export details from Facebook to Microsoft and Yahoo!. Using the two you can then get your friend details to Google+. One should note that although contact information can be obtained, the contacts will not include their friends. This little glitch can make it difficult to get Google Plus to grow fast, especially because Google Buzz is not included in the picture as it will at first be kept separate and may never be integrated with the Plus project.

Plus & Like

Facebook has the Like option allowing one to show others what you think is worth considering or when you generally just like something. Google+ has the +1 button. You will +1 for the same reason. Just a note on the plus one buttons on the search and those offered in Google Plus. The two are not related. Nothing you +1 in the Google search feature will be related to your +1 in the social network. It is confusing. As such there is a +1 for the search which is not related to Google+ the social network. Facebook has a definite advantage here. At present the only way to see what a person has +1’d in the Google search feature is to view their Google Profile. Apparently the +1 of the social network and +1 button in the search will eventually be integrated, but not for now.

Hangouts & Huddles

Hangout is the one feature that may get Google+ off the ground and get Facebook users to join in the network. Hangout is the video chatting option where up to ten persons can at the same time chat by means of video. It is definitely something to consider for work meetings or friends who for instance, play Paintball together. Everyone in the particular circle can contribute to the conversation and it is done video based. As soon as a user launches a Hangout, the friends in the circle get a notification. Pretty soon everyone can join in and have a video chat. This is better than the Facebook chat at present and also a bit more private. It is for instance, possible to share a video to a whole group of people. The Huddles feature is the Google non-SMS chat feature for mobile applications. Information about the feature is still a bit limited and as such keep an eye on this spot for more about it in future.

In Summary

Google+ offers more privacy than Facebook and better organisation of contacts. It has the Hangouts and Huddle features. In addition, it also offers Stream allowing for high quality picture feeds. There are other smaller features such as Sparks (sparking conversation on a topic and allowing to follow a specific topic), and then the ability of mobile users to add their location. Facebook is extremely popular, not so private, yet, familiar to users. Facebook is rather easy to use and doesn’t have a confusing name. The Like is already integrated with searches whereas Google+ has kept the +1 for social and the +1 for search separate for their launch. Google has it made it possible to integrate various Google products such as the Google Profiles, the Chrome search toolbar and Gmail as well.

Facebook, however, still wins on the topic of user-friendliness and simplification. You need a Google Profile that will have some information displayed publically. The Circles feature is great, but with one user being able to have more than one email account, you may end up with a user in two circles receiving two notifications every time. It still has some glitches and for people familiar with Facebook there may not be enough incentive to make use of another social network. If Google+ focuses a lot of attention on the Hangouts feature, they may be able to get more Facebook users. Other video chat applications such as Skype may get the boot in the long run and Facebook will have to bring something better to the table to keep their users at home.