Google+: Will It Kill Facebook?

Over the last week, there has been much chitter-chatter about Google+. I’ve seen headlines dissecting Google’s new social-sharing platform from all angles. Some have said that, some griped about a privacy flaw in Google+, which isn’t really a privacy flaw at all, and still many others (myself included) griped that, though Google has done a good job of creating a large amount of buzz, Google+ won’t be successful if invites are continued to be rationed, and people can’t connect with their friends because their friends can’t sign up.

And many others have asked the obvious question:

“Will Google+ Kill Facebook?”

Though the short answer is NO, here’s why I think Google+ isn’t a Facebook Killer, in three easy steps:

1. Facebook is kind of a commodity in many lives around the globe. Some people love it. Some people hate it, but not enough to do anything about. When many people wake in the morning, the first thing they do has transitioned from turning on the TV, to checking Facebook. At this point, it’s become a part of the common American’s everyday life.
2. Though it resembles Facebook in a few ways, I don’t think “KILLING FACEBOOK” was Google’s intent when they started the Google+ project. I think they wanted to create an attractive, compelling social-sharing platform, that catered to and fixed a few of the problems some users had with social networks, while creating a different user experience than the ones already out there.
3. I feel like if Google+ will diminish the value of any social network, at this point with what we’ve seen, I believe it will be Twitter, not Facebook. Especially with the “Sparks” feature. With Sparks, you get a feed that is highly personalized, with topics that you select – it’s everything you want, and nothing you don’t, whereas with Twitter, it’s one large stream, and can get convoluted at times. Also Twitter is a few blurbs, but it’s mainly links to content that takes you out of the ecosystem. With Sparks, The user gets to see the rich media in front of them, and stays in the ecosystem.

All in all, though I haven’t had a chance to get my hands dirty with Google Plus, I’m also not writing it off and saying it will go the way of Orkut, Buzz, and Wave. It seems like they’ve learned from their mistakes, and the early adopters, including Tom Anderson (co-founder of Myspace), seem to love it. And that is always a good sign for the future.