Since the launch of a whole brand new social networking platform Google plus, the battle is on between Facebook and Google.
The search engine giant is threatening strong social network giant Facebook which created a splash in the market, looking at its best and presenting latest and different apps, looks and strategies.
Let’s take a quick view on both social networks features wise.
Google+ circles vs. Facebook lists:
Google plus is giving its users an innovative look and feel with classy animations powered by HTML 5, ease of making and managing friends and family circles by just a “Drag and drop”.
Facebook provides creation of groups by the feature called “lists” but unlike Google Plus it seems not as user friendly.
Google plus is more concerned with easy management of privacy solutions and until now circles has achieved higher +1’s by users.
Google+ hangouts vs. Facebook video calling:
Although recently launched feature of video calling by Facebook in collaboration with Skype has been warmly welcomed even though it lacks group chatting feature but Google plus is towering a brilliant difference with its feature called “hangout”. It allows face to face public or private meet ups with video chatting and ability to enjoy YouTube videos with up to 10 friends.
Google+ stream vs. Facebook news feed:
Modified version of the news feed, Google stream facilitates user to update status, live experiences, share pics, videos, links or location with circles. Having fastest sharing feature at g+, the instant upload, gives it a plus over Facebook as it can’t upload videos and photos from mobile device right away. Alternatively an “upload email” is used to update status, videos or posts from mobiles.
On the other hand Facebook News Feed gives you the ability to select the most discussed feed or the new ones, something missing from Stream. Coming to the basic purpose of providing a steady stream on news, I would say it’s a tie between the two.
Facebook Like or Google+1:
As a Facebook Like button, G+ has its +1 button, giving eye catching look to g+ social stream. Both the Like and +1 have very natural feeling to them. You +1 what you ‘like’ and what you ‘like’ you want it to be incremented, improved, increased or +1’ed.
Google+ huddle vs. Facebook chat for mobiles:
G+ presents impressive text chat for android powered mobile phones even on the move other than the fact that it has Gtalk client for one-one voice and group chat and one-one video chat. Facebook only provides apps like AIM and support of XMPP or Jabber protocol for creation of custom applications.
Google+ location over Facebook places:
So far sharing your location with friends’ circle on g+ stream is user friendly, just one click away. Facebook on the other hand does not allow its user to share location right away from their wall and is also limited to some countries.
Google+ sparks and Facebook front search bar:
Google + presents users an ‘interest tab’ by giving a front-end to Google search for a specific topic, where user enters keywords about his interests and then could easily follow it just like twitter. The user will be updated regarding his favorites and this latest stuff can also be shared amongst the users’ circles. That Facebook search bar will find you relevant information from within the Facebook network and you have to search for your items of interest every time while Google Plus maintains the lists.
Google+ instantaneous uploads and FB uploads:
As Facebook has grabbed the user picture and video upload ground so far, the Google Plus’ offering ‘instant upload’ allows users’ pictures or videos taken from mobile to be shared with their friends and family instantly from the web. These shares go to the user’s stream.
Eye catching Notification systems:
Both networks have notification system that grabs the eye easily. Google Plus’ notification system in unified, in one drop down menu you get friend updates, posts to instant upload notifications. Facebook on the other hand has separate notifications for Messages, activities and Friend requests.
Google+ & Facebook browser support:
Both Google Plus and Facebook have vast browser support. They support all the latest browsers whether it is Chrome, Firefox, IE, Opera or Safari.
However a fully HTML 5 complaint browser will give the best experience of Google Plus. A thing to note is that the notification section of Google Plus doesn’t appear when using Opera Browser. Hopefully it will be corrected once it is out of Beta phase.
Google plus has attained 20 million+ users with 1 billion shares a day but it cannot be fully anticipated whether Google+ will achieve the zenith of success and outrun its rival Facebook as Google Plus till now has not revealed its entire feature set such as g+ business, g+ games and g+ questions and polls which are the basis for generation of rapid traffic on Facebook.
Or will Google+ just follow timely success such as Orkut or just be another Google wave and Google Buzz. It wholly depends on the audience, whether they catch on the latest train or just stay with the “old is gold” mantra.
