Google Plus Poised to Kill Facebook

The first impression of Google+ is good, but for many people it looks like a Facebook with Group Video chat. At first glance, Google Plus appears to be a derivative of Twitter and Facebook. People are even claiming that, it will fail like Buzz. But I have different thoughts.

Google+ is better than Buzz and is poised to give Facebook folks the sleepless nights. Steps of Google towards a social network seems promising. Google+ comes with clean design and with some exciting features like Circles, Hangouts, Huddles, and Sparks. Circles let you share things with your desired group of people. Hangouts let you have group video chat with your friends and family members. Sparks let you search your favorite topic, and lets you add those topics in your interest list.

When you get invitation from Google+, you are asked to fill up the form to join the Google+. And then it asks you to link Google+ with Picasa to store your photos. If you don’t have Google Profile previously, then you need to create and update your Google profile with your photos, so people can connect with you easily. When your profile is complete you are taken to a welcome screen, from where you can explore Google+ features easily.

Google+ interface is clean and relatively intuitive, but some users have already criticized Google Plus as a ‘derivative’ of Facebook. But in reality, it does not look like Facebook. There's a status bar on top, icons for adding photos, links, locations, and videos, even a spot in the right hand margin where it suggests other people you might know. It’s easy to add people and organize them into different circles.

Most importantly, you can set control on the things that you share with your circles. You feel secure when you share something with your friends; it’s like a more private and a secure way to broadcast and communicate with your friends on social networks. You can compare this feature with Facebook ‘Private Groups’.

 

 

 

Hangouts is one of the killer features of Google+. Hangout is sort of group video chat. You click on the Hangout button and invite members of a certain group/circle, by sending them a notification. And it’s easy to use this feature. It’s directly challenging the number of video chat products like Skype. And Facebook don’t have this feature. “Sparks” button lets you to explore your interests; it’s like bookmarking your favorite pages. The +1 Google button is integrated to your Google+ profile, which can be considered as Facebook Likes.

Idea of Huddles is also great. It is a mobile group-chat service, which works across Android, iPhone and SMS that allow you to communicate with the people of your Circles. Huddle turns different conversations into one simple group chat, so everyone gets a message on the same page at once. And one thing that is very impressive about Google+ is - once you’ve signed in, you will get the same black navigation bar with some new icons, in every Google sites. Google plus notification can be accessed from any Google pages. Whenever somebody adds you to their Circle or comments on something you have said or shared, notification windows turns red just like in Facebook. But more interestingly, you can send your comments from the same notification windows. So, no matter whether you are login to Gmail or in any Google’s service, you can see notification of Google+ on that page, and you can add your comments directly from those pages.

 

 

 

[Image Credit: Image Source: http://xkcd.com/918/ ]

Overall, Google+ is user-friendly and many issues that were not addressed by Facebook are addressed by Google+.  The concept of Circles that lets you share things with selected people, is superb. So, Google+ is more concerned about user’s privacy than Facebook. What do you feel about Google+? Share your thoughts.

Cover Image Credit : swash.com

Aakar is writer of Buzzom http://buzzom.com, Asia’s No 1 Social Media and Technology blog. You can follow buzzom at @Buzzom on Twitter.