Google+, the budding new social website, has created a buzz in social network since its launch. By far, it is considered as the biggest attempt of Google to conquer the world of social media and social network. The majority of us are yearning for its invites but Google has kept it exclusive. Nowadays, it is the “topic” of most heated debates in social network regarding its features and impacts on other major social media websites.
Google+ vs. Facebook
Google was the solo flicker of the internet world before Facebook showed up. No one ever challenged the cyber don but Facebook challenged the popularity of Google in social-networking space. As some connoisseurs say that Google has launched Google+ in early July to change the social-networking game. Google and Facebook are braced to challenge each other for a battle to get the title of social media king.
Google ever remained less controversial while the Facebook’s biggest flaw is its privacy practices that are lashed out several times for being confusing and ever changing. Facebook’s privacy control features ever remain difficult to understand and navigate. However, it managed to survive and grow successfully. Right now, there are two schools of thoughts; few may give an edge to Facebook for being pioneer in social media and few internet gurus’ point out the large number of Google users across its multiple products. The verdict is up to you that who deserve to be the king of the social-networking arena however we see few distinct differences.
Tug of War!
Since the inception of Facebook, there is nothing less than a tug of war between Facebook and Google. Facebook has swallowed the chunk of Google’s revenue by snatching a bigger share of online advertisements. Social media marketing is nothing else than taking advantage of new and improved features for personal as well as business use. Google+ was claimed to have better features and to combat the impact, Facebook teamed up with Skype to offer an integrating service that allows users to video call to their friends on Facebook’s page. Google+ does not have any such feature; let’s see how Google takes it. As Google also plans to launch the video chat feature.
Search Facility!
Searching is a feature where we cannot compare both portals as Google is a leader who directs people to find out the highly relevant results. Facebook is a platform that can be used to enhance the online presence and social media interaction. However, the question arises whether Google+ posts can boost the search rankings of a website or not. Let’s wait and watch that Google+ effectively works on the same guidelines as laid by Facebook and Facebook maintains to hold its superior social media tag.
Users, Employees & Revenues!
When it comes to the numbers war, Facebook is nowhere Google. Google has a clear edge in the form of a billion unique visitors worldwide, while Facebook accounts for 700+ million users. However, the statistics claim a huge lead in time spent per person that is 6 hours vs. 1 hour and 20 minutes. Same is the case with revenues, Google as a public company shares its data each quarter while Facebook is a private held company so the figures are less clear. According to The Wall Street Journal, Facebook had $1.86 billion in ad revenue last year and Google reported $29.3 billion in overall revenues. Google reported 24,400 employees last year whereas Facebook does not release this data.
The Conflict
The cyber conflict between the two internet heavyweights is neither hyped up nor overrated. Google is considerably larger than Facebook in revenue, but Facebook appears to be expanding and growing rapidly. Google is justified to launch the counter attack strategy. We should not forget that most of the Facebook’s traffic is generated by Google. Competition is tough but one thing is sure that there is no other way to achieve and maintain the position. No one has reached at a single verdict, but all are anticipating the results as per one’s information.
Bottom Line!
There are several things that will decide the result of the affray, whether Google+ can challenge Facebook in the social media arena or not. Google is well positioned with more customer satisfaction, but Facebook is growing much faster. There are several users who still do not understand the interface of Facebook, so they don’t have any else choice, than to move on.
Who is the winner? Let’s not decide it but leave it on the social media users who use social-networking sites and get the benefit from either of two companies or the both.