The Long Game – Why Google+ Might Win the Social Network Race

Google+ is not Facebook. The latter is a world changing tech conglomerate listed on the market. The former is just a world changing tech conglomerate’s social network. While Facebook has over 1 billion profiles listed, Google+ is still struggling to grow with 500 million profiles but only about 135 million active users (plus a further 100 million using G+ features). Yet in this battle of David vs. Goliath it is quite likely that Google+ will triumph. Maybe not today or tomorrow but at some point in the future it will overtake Facebook. Why? It’s all a matter of business model and advertising.

Service like MyLife is a search engine which not only finds people but also search across social networking sites like Facebook, Google+ and helps visitors connect with them all on the same site. MyLife pulls information from public records and also allows users to subscribe to the search site to connect with others, track their searches and more. MyLife premium members use PayPal to pay their subscription fees. Also you can unsubscribe or cancel Mylife.com premium membership at any time and get MyLife Refund.

 At first glance the two companies aren’t really that different. Both were originally tech start-ups that offered a free service and supported it through advertising. While Google expanded its area of activity and started dabbling in products that enhanced its main business, Facebook focused on maximising its user base and deriving further income from advertising. But the social network’s main asset is also its greatest flaw.

 Google’s search business drives its advertising side as well as the social network aspects and even Android OS development. Everything that Google does, every product it ships is part of a strategy to keep the user attached to the brand, keep it using Google products. This is why we have Google Docs, Google Drive, Google phones and tablets and soon, Google Glass. It is more than brand loyalty, it is brand saturation, keeping the user base ensconced in an environment that not only provides Google with the personal data it needs to refine its products (and make money through advertising) but accommodates you with its products. Facebook on the other hand can offer nothing else but the social networking aspects to capture and keep its user base and it has to keep pushing that vital social networking product in order to capitalize on it. The recent Facebook promoted post debacle and the cut-back on ‘self-governance’ are perfect examples of the changing nature of Facebook. 

 Google+ is just a small sliver of the Google monolith, a part that we’ll slowly get used to as we use other Google products. It is not ‘cool’ but elegant. It doesn’t try to push advertising on you because Google is already doing that elsewhere. In the long run, Facebook is like a free app or a trendy MMO, a product that is really fun but that needs to support itself. Google is an OS and Google+ is its Solitaire, it might not be as good as Facebook but its good enough for a few wasted minutes. And while both companies inconvenience you and use your personal data to make money Facebook does it in a concentrated manned whereas Google divides it amongst its many services in a way that makes it less noticeable.

 Google+ will win in the long run not because it is the better social network but because it is there and because it doesn’t annoy you as much as the competition. Between mail, maps and mobile OS you’ll eventually just give in and sign up for a G+ profile and before you know it you’ll be complaining about layout changes on a whole different site.

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Author Bio : Bill Wu is a writer, entrepreneur and chef extraordinaire that has juggled social network accounts since Friendster. In his opinion, SEO agencies and companies have made use of the social media aspects of Facebook for quite a while to reach large numbers of ‘fans’.