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Google+ v/s Facebook

Hey guys! I'm sure most of you there are enjoying their Summer Vacations. Well, I just thought of getting started with a Technical Blog of my own you know, just spread the message of what's going on in today's world of Engineering, Sciences and Technology. I know I wouldn't attract the crowd who aren't into this subject but, I'll make most of what I write interesting and easier to understand and debate!

Briefly about myself, I'm a second year UG student at Warwick University studying Computer and Information Engineering (MEng). I would love to interact with everyone reading this through my Blog, Facebook (Mohit Dhagat), Twitter (@mohit_dhagat) or Google Plus (Mohit Dhagat).

For some, it might seem that this is my first ever Blog Entry but, it isn't I have written a few more Blogs but, they have been on 'University Only viewable' entries. This is my first 'World Viewable Entry' hope, it goes good. I'll try to make this better and as interesting as possible. I have read and followed some of the Warwick Blogs there doesn't seem to be much traffic in posting and commenting probably because not many are aware of this so, if you all can help me spread the message to start blogging and lets all share our thoughts.

So, in this discussion the battle between Google+ and Facebook.

In today's world Social Networking is stealing most of the crowd soon, after the introdution of Facebook there are now 750 million users from all across the world. Google has tried its luck with Orkut but, FAIL! So, to get back to the game of Social Networking Google has its introduced its new tool Google+ (Google plus).

What is Google+?

At first, everyone thought it is Facebook! But as tech insiders take more time to explore Google's new online social network, called Google+, which is currently available only to people who are invited to the service, they're becoming more and more confused.

Is this Twitter? Kind of. Some bloggers have rushed to declare Google+ as Twitter's assassin and still others say Google+ has made them rethink Twitter to the point that they say it never really was that valuable.

Is it Tumblr, the blogging platform? Maybe. Is it something new? No one's really sure about that idea, either. Google+ is the Taco-Bell-meets-Pizza-Hut of social networking, throwing Twitter's "follower" mentality, Facebook's look, and Tumblr's digital-salon culture all onto one combo plate. But the combo-plate approach to a Web product doesn't always work, and it doesn't explain Google's new features, including "friend circles" and video "hangouts," where users can talk in groups of 10 at once.

The reality is that Google+ may still be in the putty phase: It's likely to become whatever its users mold it into. There's precedent for this theory in social media's (short) history.

When Facebook started, for example, there was no photo-sharing feature. Consequently, it was common for users to change their profile pictures daily, or even more often, as a way to share new photos with all of their online friends. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's CEO, said he noticed this. So the company developed a feature that would let friends share -- and eventually tag -- photos on the site. Similarly, Google+ seems to be in a near-constant state of flux based on the digerati's steady drumbeat of demands for change.

The best things that I find about Google+ and which can drag a lot of people from Facebook to Google+

1. Easy sharing

YouTube music videos, which make up many of the most popular videos on YouTube, are all over Facebook in the United States, and from what Google itself told us, the same is true for Spotify song links in Europe. Meanwhile, Google has thousands of engineers to how "social" they can make its offerings. Clearly, Google+ could give Facebook a run for its money when it comes to sharing music from -- and across -- all of the music services. The preponderance of YouTube music on Facebook is an indication that music fans want to use it to share music ... so why doesn't Facebook help us?

2. Group listening parties

If you haven't used Google Hangout yet, Google+'s online video chatroom that lets you know when your friends are hanging out. By combining those two concepts -- with or without the video component -- to create real-time music listening parties with push notifications, Google+ could run "circles" around Facebook in the group listening department. And music fans would start evangelizing Google+ in order to get their friends involved, the same way they are currently doing with Turntable.fm.

3. Live musicians plus live music

Google+'s Hangout feature could do something else, and surely this one has already occurred to Google engineers pining for that "social bonus."

Hangout could be a great way for stars to hold meet-and-greet sessions with their fans. Plenty of other ways exist for this sort of thing, of course, but Google has money and famous people make appearances in exchange for it. If Google doesn't do this, one has to wonder how else they're spending their money. And, of course, the company could archive these talks on YouTube, creating valuable content that would still be of interest 20 years from now, in many cases, and which wouldn't appear on Vimeo or any other competitors.

4. Google music integration

Oh yeah, Google already has its own music storage solution for fans, unlike Facebook, which uploads photos and videos for easy sharing but ignores your music collection.

If Google+ doesn't do something interesting with the service still known as Music Beta for Google, its engineers don't just deserve to miss out on those bonuses; they should probably be fired.

There are many ways to go with this, but for starters, they could make your music collection visible and searchable on Google+, use it as a way to introduce people to each other, work on creating DMCA-compliant streams that would allow people to listen to each other's taste, and should probably use taste-combining algorithms to create stations out of multiple Music Beta by Google accounts too.

Just a thought.

5. Android apps for the win

Facebook doesn't have a popular smartphone operating system, and Google does.

With debut of Google+, a new social network, comparisons to Facebook are inevitable, and immediate. Punch for punch, Google+ reproduces some of Facebook's most popular tools but adds one distinctive function: video chat. Google refers to the video service as Hangouts. Several friends can join a room, and the live feeds from their webcams appear as separate blocks along the bottom of the window. The main video box shows the person who's speaking the loudest at any given time. Hangouts can also integrate with Google's YouTube.

By contrast, Facebook hasn't made video conferencing available on its website. But the social networking giant has a close relationship with Microsoft, which acquired Skype last month. Recent versions of the Skype desktop software tie into Facebook's services.

With Hangouts, Google+ has at least one technological advantage over Facebook. But Google's apparent ambition is not to unseat Facebook right away. Google has set up barriers to fast adoption, as it has done with some of its other products, by only allowing people who have been invited by friends to use Google+.

When crafting a service to take on Facebook, Google was wise not to ignore what that popular network, with its more than 600 million users, already does well.

Google appears to be rejecting the idea that Google+ is meant to take Facebook head on. Google says its service is for more tight-knit groups, rather than for all types of online interactions."The problem is that today's online services turn friendship into fast food -- wrapping everyone in 'friend' paper," Google executive Vic Gundotra writes in a blog post. "We'd like to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to software."Eric Schmidt, Google's executive chairman and former CEO, took a more directed swipe at Facebook last month. At a technology conference, he described the service as catering to "every friend you've ever had, including the ones you can't quite remember."Google suggests that it has plenty more to show. The company repeatedly refers to Google+ as a"project," indicating it will change over time."This is just the beginning," Google said Tuesday. "We're just getting warmed up, and we're already pretty excited about what's coming next."

What do you think?Let me know in the comments. Criticisms are Welcome!

Mohit Dhagat : 07 Aug 2011 14:54 |  Tags: Academic Blog Career Early Engineering English Life Module Network Networking Open PhD Profiles Publishing Research Researcher Researchers Review Science Social Student Students Summer Tips Whyblog Work-Life |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem