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Google+ challenges Facebook in social network battle

2011-06-29 10:22:28

Google+ has been released for use by a small, selected number of users

Online search giant Google has launched a new social networking website in its

latest attempt to take on Facebook, which now claims more than 500m users.

Google+ allows individuals to share photos, messages and comments but also

integrates the company's maps and images into the service.

It also aims to help users easily organise contacts within groups.

But some analysts say Google has simply reproduced features of Facebook while

adding a video chat function.

Google, which handles roughly two out of every three internet searches in the

US, has taken several stabs at Facebook in recent years.

But its previous efforts ended in failure, with both Google Wave and Google

Buzz proving unpopular with users.

New functions

The company is now boasting that four features in Google+ could help make the

company a permanent player in social networking:

Continue reading the main story

Start Quote

Google is playing it canny by only releasing the product via invite to a

limited set of users before being gradually opened up to the general public

Maggie Shiels Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley

Read more from Maggie

Circles - a functionality that allows individuals to place friends into groups,

allowing users to share different forms of content with targeted clusters of

friends

Hangouts - live multi-user video conferencing that permits friends to drop in

and out of live group conversations

Huddle - group instant messaging

Sparks - a feature that connects individuals on the network to others with

common interests.

The current version of Google+ has only been released to a small number of

users, but the company has said it soon hopes to make the social network

available to the millions of individuals that use its services each day.

"Online sharing needs a serious re-think, so it's time we got started," Vic

Gundotra, senior vice president of engineering at Google, said in a press

release.

"Other social networking tools make selective sharing within small groups

difficult," she added, taking what appears to be a jab at Facebook's recent

grouping function.

But some analysts have said Google could have a difficult time converting

Facebook devotees to their new social network.

"People have their social circles on Facebook - asking them to create another

social circle is challenging," Debra Aho Williamson, principal analyst with

research firm eMarketer, told the Associated Press news agency.

"The whole idea of a Google social network... they've been throwing stuff

against the wall for several years and so forth nothing has stuck," she added.

In April, Google reached an out-of-court settlement with a US policy group over

its rollout out Google Buzz, a previous social effort.

The legal action claimed Google deceived users and violated its own privacy

policy by automatically enrolling all Gmail users in its Buzz social network

without seeking prior permission.

Google+: The new Facebook rival?

Unlike the launch for Google Buzz, Google+, the company's most aggressive

attack on Facebook's domination in the world of social networking, was unveiled

with little fanfare and little fuss.

Back in early 2010 the fourth estate came out in force to hear all about Buzz,

the search giant's big social play at the time.

Proof that the company thought so highly of this product was evidenced by the

fact that Google co-founder Sergey Brin took part in the press conference.

Buzz had all the right ingredients of a socially engineered product but failed

because of serious stumbles around privacy.

Earlier this year Google reached a settlement with the US Federal Trade

Commission to resolve concerns the company violated its own privacy policies

through Buzz.

This time around for Google+ which was code named Emerald Sea, there was no

press conference, no big press reveal and no execs trumpeting its arrival.

The emergence of Google+ was more or less heralded with a simple blog post by

Vic Gundotra, senior vice president of engineering at Google and the man who

has been in stealth mode for over a year leading the company's social play.

New features

Start Quote

All that information that Facebook's 500m users are sharing is locked behind

Facebook's wall out of the reach of Google's spiders and search smarts

But make no mistake, the lack of ceremony surrounding the arrival of Google+

does not take away from the fact that this is Google's most serious and

concerted effort to try to nail social.

It is also its most ambitious attempt to answer Facebook without copying what

it does. To simply do that would have been a recipe for disaster.

At the core of Google+ is a feature called Circles which is aimed at making it

easier to organise friends, family members and others into smaller, easier to

manage and more intimate groups as opposed to everyone you know.

The product will also draw on Gmail to work out who you might like to invite

into the circle.

With more than 500 million users Facebook is a growing threat to Google, its

bottom line and how users will continue to search. Right now Google can lay

claim to over 65% of the search market in the US according to research firm

comScore.

But as users rely more and more on friends and their social graph for

recommendations, Facebook is in the right place to cash in.

Old rivals

The reasoning goes that who would you trust for a recommendation for a

hairdresser/restaurant/gym more? Your friends on Facebook or Google's search

engine?

Screenshot of Facebook Facebook dominates the world of social networking

The fact that Google and Facebook don't play nice in the sandbox adds to the

drama of the situation. Remember earlier this year that Facebook was caught

using a PR firm to plant unflattering stories about Google.

Proof of the enmity between these two technology giants is clear in Mr

Gundotra's blog post when he refers to social networking as being "sloppy,

scary and insensitive" and maintains that the "problem is that today's online

services turn friendship into fast food - wrapping everyone in 'friend' paper."

Ouch!

Remember all that information that Facebook's 500m users are sharing is locked

behind Facebook's wall out of the reach of Google's spiders and search smarts.

Over the last couple of years Facebook has grown into a social networking

behemoth.

In May 180 million people visited Google sites including YouTube compared to

157.2 million on Facebook, according to comScore.

When it comes to user engagement Facebook is in the clear lead.

Users looked at 103 billion pages and spent an average of 375 minutes on the

site compared to Google's 46.3 billion pages where users spent 231 minutes.

These are figures that advertisers pay close attention to.

Earlier this year, Google's then CEO and now chairman Eric Schmidt admitted he

"screwed up" in the area of social networking.

"I clearly knew I had to do something and I failed to do it," he said.

Since co-founder Larry Page resumed the role of CEO back in April he put the

company on notice and told employees that future bonuses would be tied to the

success of Google's social strategy.

In a memo that he sent out at the time, Mr Page said "we all have a stake in

the success of this effort".

Google is playing it canny by only releasing the product via invite to a

limited set of users before being gradually opened up to the general public.

That way they can react quickly to feedback and implement changes quickly

without upsetting a lot of users.

Analysts are divided about how successful Google+ will be but Charlene Li of

the Altimeter Group said Facebook has to be worried nonetheless.

"The biggest risk group inside Facebook are people like me who are marginal

users, in their 40's and someone who does not have all their friends on

Facebook. Facebook is a toss up for me. My entire social graph isn't using

Facebook so that is up for grabs and if Google+ does a good job for people like

me, that is where I will go.

"It will be an interesting battle ahead. And for Google to be successful it

doesn't have to beat Facebook, it just needs to get enough people in these

circles to spend time there to make a dent on what Facebook does."

The ironic thing about the timing of the launch Google+ is that is enters stage

left as a former darling of the social networking world watches the curtain

slowly come down on its present.

Later today it is expected that MySpace will announce a number of lay offs

along with the news that it will be sold for around $30m, a far cry from the

$580m that Rupert Murdoch paid in 2005 for what was then the world's biggest

social network.

For now that title belongs to Facebook.