Facebook still rules, but Google+ is winning friends
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Plenty of people like Google+ -- the search engine giant's latest foray into the arena of social networking. If it succeeds, could a chunk of Facebook's 750 million active users end up un-friending the social networking top dog?
Google's new social network is growing rapidly. It passed the 20 million user mark three weeks after it launched, according to comScore, Inc. The site is still in test phase, and the only way to join is to be invited by another user.
Google+ is designed with an easy-to-use graphic interface. Features include:
• Circles -- Users categorize the people in their networks into different groups -- friends, business associates, family members and customized subgroups. People can choose which specific groups they want to share particular information with, as opposed to the feed that goes out to all Facebook "friends" or Twitter followers. There's also a "Following" circle, designed to fill the same function as Twitter, where people can follow celebrities or other high-profile people.
• Hangouts -- Groups of up to 10 friends can take part in spontaneous online get-togethers with real-time video chats. Facebook also launched a video chat feature recently.
• Sparks -- Users can specify topics -- cooking, cycling, music, whatever -- that they're interested in. Google+ creates a news feed, sending them links to articles, videos and blog posts they might like, which they can share with others.
Plenty of local people are trying Google+, and they're all in agreement on one thing: They say it's easier to use than Facebook, and all liked the Circles feature. By choosing whom they send specific posts to, they worry less about a photo or information being seen by the wrong people.
Jeff Contillo, a technical consultant who lives in Trafford, likes the control over who sees what on his Google+ account. "It allows you to be yourself more. That's one of my biggest complaints about Facebook."
Facebook does offer a way to create similar subgroups with its Friend Lists, but many Facebook users say it's not as easy to navigate as Google+'s drag-and-drop Circles. Many people interviewed have been trying to solve that problem by limiting their Facebook profiles to family and friends, and using LinkedIn for their professional networks.
First Published July 27, 2011 12:00 am
