Google+, A Social Media Contender and More

While Facebook may be the 800+ pound gorilla in the social networking and media arena, it would never be wise to count out Google! Recently Google rolled out their latest social networking effort, Google+ and after dabbling with it a bit, I am impressed. It's an incomplete effort but one that does a nice job integrating several Google services and doing so with a clean, uncluttered interface. On top of Google+ is an aggregator bar that gives you access to your Gmail, Calendar, Documents and more. The rest of the interface looks remarkably similar to Facebook with chat/messaging on the left and your network updates stream down the center. One key difference for Google+ is the ability to create "circles" of people allow you to control sharing and viewing of information. Similar to twitter lists, circles give you the ability to segment your updates based upon the intimacy and type of social relationship you have with people.

Status updates are identical to Facebook with text, pictures, videos, weblinks and location (comparable to Facebook places). "+1's" are available as an alternative to Facebook likes, allowing you to interact and recommend items. While Gchat messaging plays a central role in Google+, they've also added hangouts which allow for group webcam sessions. Your webcam sessions now become part of a stream that your circles can take part in, pretty cool! Sparks are also available, topical and special interest feeds of articles culled from the web and blogs.

One additional feature I really like is Google+'s Data Liberation option which allows you to download copies of the status update streams, Picasa photos and contacts in your circle. With Facebook, all your information is mostly locked up in the cloud. Google+ has a mobile app only available on Android (as expected) but I imagine they may some day port an app for iPhone. Some glaring gaps include a lack of events and business pages in Google+ And while there is pretty tight integration with Gchat, there is little to none with Gmail which is a bit surprising.

Perhaps if Google had delivered this effort a couple of years back, it could have made significant inroads on Facebook. But given the weight of Facebook's massive network and user base, even the best service is going to have a difficult time making headway. For those who already spend significant time on Facebook, do you really have additional cycles to explore on Google+? But a definite +1 for Google+, competition is always a good thing whether you're talking about social networking, marketing or business in general...