Google+ vs Facebook

So it's time to have a look at the newest competitor to Facebook, and possibly the only credible threat to Zuckerberg and his social network at the moment.

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At the moment, Google's second attempt at a social networking site (anyone remember or still use Orkut?)  is still in its beta phase, so you can only create a profile if you receive an invite from someone who already has one.  I was lucky enough to receive an invite and so far I like what I am seeing, but it might be a little too early to tell which site will come out on top, but it is gaining ground fast.

So far I've found Google+ to be a little bit slow, but that will most likely improve once it's fully operational.  So far it feels a lot like Facebook, but with a few key differences, the most interesting I think is the circles feature. Circles allow you to filter out the stream of posts that you see according to the grouping that you assign to each person, so you it becomes easier to look for posts made by certain people that you've added. It also means that you can make it so that posts or photos that you don't want to share with one group can still be shared with another. Pretty handy if your parents or boss have added you!

Another thing that will be useful, is the integration of the +1 feature.  You've probably all seen the +1 button everywhere by now, and now it actually does something useful.  Just like the Facebook "Like" button, the +1 button is shown next to posts so you can let people know that you like it, but your profile also includes a page that displays all the things that you've +1, so I think it will be quite handy as a little bookmark all over the web. 

So, what do you think of Google+? Will it take the crown away from Facebook as the world biggest social networking site? Given that people seem to either love or hate Facebook, I think the early adopters of Google+ will be the people who have had less than favourable dealings with Facebook (they want people to send in a colour scan of government issued I.D if they can't verify your account?). Will Facebook become the next MySpace? Time will tell, for now check it out for yourself. Some enterprising individual has set up a Like vs Plus page, so check that out here