Google+ vs Facebook

By now you would have already signed up for the new Google+ access & would be part of its over increasing 20 million plus user base. Considering its still in the beta testing, but with the kind of interest it has generated, it's already been touted as a Facebook killer. Is that really true??

Thanks to Nadia Aly (www.NadiaAly.com), I got a chance to play around with Google+ getting to know its "hangouts", "circles" & having been around using Facebook for a while and known the "pokes", "likes" , thought it would be well to see how these two Social Networking sites stack up against each other.

#1. Circles vs Friends

Google+ Circles 

One of the most striking features of Google+ has been the "circles" which actually is a list of contact(s) which you can put under different groups - 

• Friends - Someone you're close to & can share personal details
• Family - Close & Extended Family (As per Google & the added a note on in-laws too, I liked that :-) )
• Acquaintances - People you might have met, but aren't close to
• Following - People whom you might not necessarily know but might share common interest and would be keen to follow

Then it also has the ability to add new "circles".

Vs Facebook Friends
 

Yes Facebook does have the ability to classify friends, family. But as you would agree, its not as easy as Google+ to do the classification

#2. Hangout vs....
 

You can chat in Facebook & with recent addition, the new feature also allows you to accomplish video chat. But Google+ "Hangout" wins hands down in this race by allowing to have a multi-user video/text chat session for upto 10 users & also includes support to Linux based machines which is missing in Facebook as also is the multi-user video chat.

#3. Google+ Sparks vs...
 

Google+ "Spark" allows the user to get constant feed of stuff that they would really like to follow, a feature clearly missing from Facebook.

#4. Facebook Gaming vs...
 

Though Google does hold a stake in Zyngna (according to the filing by Zyngna), we have not yet come across any news that Google+ will have a gaming feature. Gaming has major share in success of Facebook with games like of Farmville, etc with over 53% Facebook users playing game & popularity of Facebook Credits giving a heads up to in-game commerce. Hope we hear about it from Google soon.

#5. Facebook Business Pages vs...
 

One more feature that is missing from Google+ is the ability for an enterprise to launch their pages. Though its being talked about, we have not yet seen it as part of the current roll-out of Google+, hence Facebook is a clear winner on this point.

There are few other points at which I think they stack up equally like - Privacy, Liking (+1 & Facebook "Like"), Location based information (Google+ Location & Facebook Places).

At this point, though in my opinion its an even contest, with Google+ having a slender edge by the virtue of its previous failed attempts. But the users are the clear winners & are spoilt of choices now.

Let the war begin with Google+ public launch.

Meanwhile, do keep sharing your feedback & comments.

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