Is Google+ Better Than Facebook?

[her209]

Don't expect privacy when you upload all your information to a corporation that makes money off mining that information to sell.

 

[TalonStrike]

Ya - they own you and do what they want. You aren't a paying customer, so, they don't care.

and it is that attitude that makes me and many other people want to jump over to G+ as soon as possible.

 

[edro]

the fact that my friends are so diverse it keeps me from posting/sharing anything but generic stuff, etc) so it would not take very much to make me switch.

Same here. I would love to have little circles of friends that I can act 100% immature with and another group that I am 100% professional with.

 

[Ns1]

Same here. I would love to have little circles of friends that I can act 100% immature with and another group that I am 100% professional with.

dude, they're called LISTS in FB

i have lists for FRIENDS and lists for COWORKERS.

Coworkers only have LIMITED access and cannot see wall or photos.

Furthermore, when you post a message on FB, you can dictate which lists your status updates go to, or which lists to hide it from.

G+ is not doing anything new IMHO.

 

[cronos]

dude, they're called LISTS in FB

i have lists for FRIENDS and lists for COWORKERS.

Coworkers only have LIMITED access and cannot see wall or photos.

Furthermore, when you post a message on FB, you can dictate which lists your status updates go to, or which lists to hide it from.

G+ is not doing anything new IMHO.

It is doing it much better though, not to mention much more elegantly!

</apple>

 

[Aharami]

Actually, it makes a lot of sense. Making something exclusive is a great way to make people WANT it. I would argue that the initial exclusivity of facebook is part of what fueled it to be what it is today. (that, and the fact that its only competitor was myspace).

I think that worked for fb because there wasn't really one giant well established competitor at that point. google cant play the same game now because if they keep it locked for too long, people will get annoyed and just stick to fb

 

[BeauJangles]

I think that worked for fb because there wasn't really one giant well established competitor at that point. google cant play the same game now because if they keep it locked for too long, people will get annoyed and just stick to fb

It worked pretty well with Gmail.

 

[Ns1]

I think that worked for fb because there wasn't really one giant well established competitor at that point. google cant play the same game now because if they keep it locked for too long, people will get annoyed and just stick to fb

it worked for FB because exclusivity was limited to people in your COLLEGE aka people that you know, or want to know.

right now there's only 2 people in my circle. I can't run down the hall (for instance) and say "HEY EVERYONE SIGN UP FOR G+ RIGHT NOW"

 

[SAWYER]

not really, hotmail and yahoo crush gmail

 

[Aharami]

It worked pretty well with Gmail.

GMAIL succeeded because it was the first to bring features like large storage and threaded emails. exclusivity had a small part in it.

 

[cronos]

I think that worked for fb because there wasn't really one giant well established competitor at that point. google cant play the same game now because if they keep it locked for too long, people will get annoyed and just stick to fb

GMail was like this (invite only for the longest time) and it did just fine. It was a brand new player with Yahoo Mail and Hotmail the established webmail provider for the longest time.

I'm not saying it's a guarantee, but based on what I'm getting from it, G+ will not flop. I don't think it will dethrone FB in a couple of months, but it will definitely make Zuckerberg sweat a little bit.

Also, if FB refuses to evolve significantly and gear up to compete, it's a sure fire way for them to lose out in the end. I think the Zuck is smarter than that though, and my gut feeling is telling me that FB is planning a huge redesign/recode in the near future, which is partly because of what G+ is doing.

 

[edro]

http://mashable.com/2011/07/05/google-blogger-picasa-rebranding/

Blogger and Picasa to become Google Blogs and Google Photo, integrated with Google+.
6 weeks away

 

[BeauJangles]

not really, hotmail and yahoo crush gmail

Wrong. Google hit an absolute home run with Gmail. In four years it has become the #2 mail service in the country. Plus, Google won the under-30 battle and made free email accounts cool. I don't know what more you expect from them.

In short, Google’s Gmail has been surging — growing 29 percent over the past year in the U.S. to overtake Hotmail as the second largest webmail service in the country, with 52.8 million users as of last month, according to the comScore numbers. Yahoo is No. 1 in the U.S., at 90.2 million users as of last month — with its sizeable lead providing some cushion to withstand a 3 percent year-over-year decline

http://www.geekwire.com/2011/stats-hotmail-top-worldwide-gmail-posts-big-gains

 

[Ns1]

http://mashable.com/2011/07/05/google-blogger-picasa-rebranding/

Blogger and Picasa to become Google Blogs and Google Photo, integrated with Google+.
6 weeks away

blogger integration with g+ is interesting. maybe they'll release a version of Picasa that I don't hate.

 

[Cogman]

I think that worked for fb because there wasn't really one giant well established competitor at that point. google cant play the same game now because if they keep it locked for too long, people will get annoyed and just stick to fb

MySpace? Before facebook, MySpace WAS very large and very well established. When Facebook finally was made open to everyone in 2006, Myspace had something like 10 million users.

 

[Aharami]

it worked for FB because exclusivity was limited to people in your COLLEGE aka people that you know, or want to know.

right now there's only 2 people in my circle. I can't run down the hall (for instance) and say "HEY EVERYONE SIGN UP FOR G+ RIGHT NOW"

which is my point exactly. When fb was locked to students only, non-students looked at it with an envious eye - because there wasnt really an alternative at that point. But now if google keeps G+ locked for too long, people's curiosity will turn into anger and they will be like "meh" and stick to fb.

 

[SP33Demon]

not really, hotmail and yahoo crush gmail

Wrong, gmail is the fastest growing and will take the throne from yahoo soon.

In short, Google’s Gmail has been surging — growing 29 percent over the past year in the U.S. to overtake Hotmail as the second largest webmail service in the country, with 52.8 million users as of last month, according to the comScore numbers. Yahoo is No. 1 in the U.S., at 90.2 million users as of last month — with its sizeable lead providing some cushion to withstand a 3 percent year-over-year decline.

 

[BeauJangles]

GMAIL succeeded because it was the first to bring features like large storage and threaded emails. exclusivity had a small part in it.

When you have people beating down the doors and are willing to bid on auctions to get early access to your service, that's a very good thing. The amount of publicity limited launches like Gmail and Facebook generate is absolutely critical to driving early adoption and building buzz.

 

[Cogman]

GMail was like this (invite only for the longest time) and it did just fine. It was a brand new player with Yahoo Mail and Hotmail the established webmail provider for the longest time.

I'm not saying it's a guarantee, but based on what I'm getting from it, G+ will not flop. I don't think it will dethrone FB in a couple of months, but it will definitely make Zuckerberg sweat a little bit.

Also, if FB refuses to evolve significantly and gear up to compete, it's a sure fire way for them to lose out in the end. I think the Zuck is smarter than that though, and my gut feeling is telling me that FB is planning a huge redesign/recode in the near future, which is partly because of what G+ is doing.

It really depends on how google does things. There is no real guarantee that they will succeed. I don't think, however, having a closed network is a bad thing to begin with. It generates lots of Buzz (tm) fast.

 

[edro]

Google will always win because they hire the most brilliant people in the world.

 

[Aharami]

http://mashable.com/2011/07/05/google-blogger-picasa-rebranding/

Blogger and Picasa to become Google Blogs and Google Photo, integrated with Google+.
6 weeks away

if picasa becomes integrated into google+, I will switch and deactivate my fb acct. I cannot stand fb's shitty photo app, and their downsized and compressed photo quality

 

[Aharami]

MySpace? Before facebook, MySpace WAS very large and very well established. When Facebook finally was made open to everyone in 2006, Myspace had something like 10 million users.

true, but people switched from myspace to fb because fb's layout was a million times better than myspace. I havent tried google+, but from what I hear, it looks pretty much like fb, just with better privacy controls. And let's face it, majority of the fb users don't care about privacy, otherwise they wouldnt post the shit they do on their wall.

Basically fb was able to steal users away from myspace because customers wanted something different. And when fb was locked, users of myspace/friendster/etc were looking at fb with an envious eye. I don't think anyone is really envious of G+ users right now. It's more of a curiosity. Google has built up good momentum in the past week or so, but they need to keep it going by opening up invites again (note, I said open up invites...not make it open to public) before the curiosity fizzles out.

 

[cronos]

It really depends on how google does things. There is no real guarantee that they will succeed. I don't think, however, having a closed network is a bad thing to begin with. It generates lots of Buzz (tm) fast.

Definitely. I do think Google has learned their lessons the hard way last year with Wave and Buzz. If you read the Ars (I think it was Ars) article about how G+ came alive, you'll know that they're absolutely serious about this, and they won't mess this up.

Btw, I'm actually a little scared that I realized that I have so much faith in Google. How did they got me I have no idea

 

[Atomic Playboy]

I have never used Facebook or MySpace; I never got the point of the social networking scene. However, I might be tempted to use Google+ solely because I already have an account with Google for e-mail and documents, and I use Google for searches and maps, not to mention their web browser. So based solely on the fact that I use Google's services for other things, I may give Google+ a try. Facebook can't offer me anything similar, so they aren't going to get my business as a customer.

The limited rollout could have a very negative effect though. When Facebook had a limited rollout, social networking was in its infancy. Now there are half a billion people using it. People have become accustomed to checking in on their friends online; if their friends can't join the network, what reason do they have to visit it? The only way Google+ can hope to compete with Facebook is to start getting users flocking over in droves. "Oh, that guy doesn't update Facebook anymore because he switched to Google+? I guess I better get Google+ so I can keep up with him." Without that element, Google is shooting themselves in the foot.

 

[BeauJangles]

If anybody is in a position to understand the mistakes that MySpace made and to avoid them in the future, it's got to be Facebook. Zuckerberg admitted that if MySpace had simply copied exactly what FB was doing from 2004-2006, there's no way he could have beaten them. Same rules apply here. If Google launches an innovative feature, FB needs to clone the crap out of it ASAP.