Opinion: Google+ = Facebook - Commercial Promotion x 1/10 The Users

If you hadn’t noticed, at some point in recent weeks, a new button has made an appearance on some Websites.  Have a look at this Huffington Post article. I’m talking about the “+” button, with primary colors above it in the box on the left side of the page.  

What’s that about? Google, the world’s hands-down leader in search, has recently launched what it hopes will be a Facebook killer. In its effort to be your one-stop-internet-shop, Google is getting in to social media. 

Google+ is the name of the project, and it was launched to a small number of “famous techies” in late June. Bloggers and tech entrepreneurs were welcomed first with an invitation from Google. Those users got “invites” to distribute to their friends as well, and then those users got invites, etc. For my wedding anniversary, all that my wife asked for (yes, I realize how lucky I am) was an invite to Google+. I was able to get her one within a few hours.

So that button with the +? That’s essentially the Google+ equivalent of Facebook’s “Like” feature. As a G+ user (who likes the service so much he has given up Facebook completely), I simply click the + button on an article, and a link to that article is automatically pasted to my Google+ profile. I’m starting to see the button on a large number of sites I visit.

What’s noticeably absent from Google+ is a business community. The web is replete with stories of business owners who tried to create a G+ presence, only to have Google administrators remove the page. They seem to be focusing solely on users’ personal relationships, and not so much on promotion. 

One common gripe is that Facebook shares your information with its vendors. When you install any Facebook apps, you agree to share all of your information with the publisher. This means that the creators of FarmVille know who your family is, what college you went to, if you mention a product in a status update, etc.  

Google+ wants to gather and use your information as well. The chief difference being that Google will be the only one who can access your information, and they will then decide what advertisements might be relevant to you.  

Google+ also gives you much easier means of selectivity with regard to who sees what about you. When you add a new friend or acquaintance to your Google+ account, you have to select a “circle” to place them in. Circles can be named anything, and can exist in any quantity.  You could have “church friends” separate from “work friends.” That way, you can ask just your church friends to pray for you to get through another day at the office, and tell just your work friends about what you did on Friday night.  

Google+ still has a really small number of users compared to Facebook. After a month of use, my G+ friend-list is still only 1/10th the size of my Facebook page. I can’t follow bands, but I can follow band members. I can’t keep up with Microsoft, but I can follow Bill Gates. In that way, it’s kind of limiting. 

A Facebook killer it is not. Yet. But, if you use Google for email, Google for search, Google for translation, Google for reading news, Google for maps, etc.; don’t you think you’ll eventually use Google for social networking?