Google Plus vs. Facebook and the winner is …

We are all very aware of the type of revolution Facebook has brought in the domain of social networking. The types of innovations, the integration of various apps, unique customization of the update feed, etc. are all hallmark of Facebook holding the nerve of common man. Google’s Orkut even though had similar features but had limited success due to non-intuitive interface and simply because people were addicted to Facebook. Orkut was followed by Google’s Wave which turned to be a big disaster and now Google’s latest offering in social networking domain is “Google+”.

So lets try to see why so much hype on the Google+:

1. Photo Tagging: Photo sharing is one of the key of any social networking and its made still better by tagging. By default FB doesn’t intimate the person being tagged in anyone else’s album while it is enabled in G+ which is a good security measure. Heck, I should where all I feature.

2. Friend Management: Perhaps this is the best feature of G+ in which we can create different ‘circles’ and interact with them in different ways. So next time if you plan to write some naughty (f**k**g) comment in some of your close buddy your boss will not know that. Cool…

3. Better Integration: With FB’s increased presence in business aspects, need of tools like editors, calendar, etc. to be integrated is paramount. This is another feature which will help G+ excel, with some of the best used features like Google’s Docs, Calendar, & Gmail integrated with G+, I feel that G+ will definitely has something to boast. Also Picasa & YouTube is real killer in friend and family usage.

4. Privacy: No matter what FB advocates are babbling, FB treats that all the data uploaded or written by you is their property and they have full right to use it the way they want. Also if you have made an account in FB you have to struggle hard to remove your info from their databank and server. G+ is offering a service “Data Liberation” wherein you can simply download all your data, delete everything from server and walk away, nothing will be stored after that. Really good on Google’s part. Google for change.

5. Chatting: G+ “Hangouts” is the group chat application is way better than the basic mono chat offered by FB. I feel this is going to be one of the most used features of G+ in near future both for personal as well as business usage. Chat on …

Well enough of G+ appreciations, lets see how FB fares in comparison

1. Loyal User: FB is #1 visited site and almost all the users have a pretty active social account, no one wants to switch to a new platform every now and then so this is one of the biggest point which tilts the scale in favour of FB. Plus, I am addicted to Farmville.

2. Better Search Feature: It sound contradictory that FB search is better than G+ specially when Google is best known for its search engine. But if you try you will find that Search Bar situated at top of FB will almost always give you relevant result while G+ search bar, where it is?

3. Original Uncluttered Layout: Yes, FB doesn’t offer customization of its wall and that is its core strength, the simplicity of the wall and the way all relevant information is presented in front of eye immediately is the real strength of FB. G+ has currently adopted a similar type of interface but we all don’t like copycats. Right?

4. Open ID: Yes I have seen many & I mean many sites which use Facebook credential as Open-ID to authenticate you as human. Recently even blogging platform Word press has also added this feature. Google profile also works in the same way but Facebook looks to lead the race.

So after all this comparison, who is the winner?

Well, it is very hard to say. Despite having some great features G+ is going to have a real tough time competing with FB and may be FB may emerge winner but if G+ is able to gain some critical mass then G+ will definitely overtake FB. And my vote goes to “Google +”