Google & Social Network.

Today, I've joined an elite class of web users that have special powers that others don't.

Alright, that's how I see it. But in reality, I know Google Plus is just an overhyped, Facebook-esque service, provided by the brilliant folks at Google. A service, which at the time of post, is still under wraps for most, as it undergoes a limited trial test (*cough* BETA *cough*).

I have to admit. I've been skeptical when I heard that Google was developing a social networking service. Looking back at this company's past history of social networking services (Orkut, Google Buzz, Jaiku, and arguably, Google Wave), we can see that Google has made attempts into this realm before, and with the exception of Orkut, they've had brief moments of success before the hype surrounding them died down, and people went back to Facebook and Twitter like a yo-yo.

Indeed, developing a social network to compete against the dominant players right now (Facebook and Twitter) is no easy task. These companies have been building up their user base, to the extent where they now have enough power to enable them to "tentacle" their way across the internet. Nowadays, it's rare to come across a news site or a blog that doesn't give you the option to share the news story on Facebook or Twitter. Facebook and Twitter have shaped our lives in more ways than one - from procrastinating with Farmville and #Hashtags, to toppling regimes in the Arab Spring; from being able to know what @ProfBrianCox is thinking, to seeing tagged photos of your antics from last night at Arena. My point is: think social network, and the top results in your mind are likely to include Facebook and Twitter (disregarding the regional equivalents for the moment, like RenRen and Orkut). Google has the challenge of shaking away their past non-successes and coming up with a competitive product that will stick in people's minds for the right reasons.

Is Google Plus the right solution to this challenge? Well, let's look at what it has to offer first.

From what I've seen and heard thus far, Google+ is attempting to integrate various Google services together. Think of it as an aggregator for what you do with Google. Your Blogger blog posts, your Picasa uploads, your "+1"s on a news story that you read somewhere (I +1 this, or in Facebook speak, I like this), your Google Chat (remember that, from the days when it was in Gmail?), your YouTube activities, maybe your gaming activities on Angry Bird (think Apple's Game Centre, but on Android + other platforms). At this point, you might say "I can do all that already. It's called Facebook". True, all these features have been available on other services.

But perhaps the most exciting this for me about Google+ is their concept of Circles.

The best way of explaining circles is probably this: Imagine Google+ is a chatroom with all your online contacts together - your relatives, your ex-teachers, your ex-girl/boyfriend, your flatmates, your coursemates, your colleagues, etc. Sometimes, you just want an outlet to say something, but perhaps you only want certain people to see it, and not others, and you don't want to set a specific privacy setting just for that one status update on Facebook or that one Tweet, because it takes umpteen steps to do so. Well, Circles in Google+ is very similar to the idea of lists in Facebook, but made simpler. By default, Google gives you 4 circles to start off with - Friends, Family, Acquaintances, and Following. By putting your contacts into individual circles, you can now post certain things, and choose to share it with a specific circle(s), extended circles, just your contacts, or if you don't mind, the whole world. Because Google emphasises the Circles feature right from the outset when you want to add contacts, you are more likely to sort out your contacts into "circles" then with lists on Facebook. The clean user interface in which Google presents the Circles idea to you could not have been any simpler - you just drag a contact into the appropriate circle. Simple as that. And posting a status update is now easier than sending an email - you compose the status, and you choose who you want to send it to via Circles. And if you made a mistake, the brilliant minds at Google Inc can allow you to make an edit, even after posting. No more embarrassing typos!

One other feature that is of interest to me right now is the "Hangouts" feature on Google+. This concept is not exactly new - video/text chat over a social network, with people who happen to be online. However, recent events at Facebook has made this feature pop out to me. In case you haven't heard, Facebook and Skype have recently deepened their partnership by not only enabling Skype users to search their Facebook contacts, but also (most crucially), allowing Facebook users to have a video chat with each other over Facebook. Imagine that, I see that my friend is (as usual) procrastinating on Facebook, and I start a video chat with him/her. Considering how much time we spend online on social networking sites, this could be a hot feature for Facebook. Could this be a deal-breaker for Facebook? Or is this just Facebook trying to steal some limelight from Google's newest baby by playing catchup?

Putting aside the Facebook factor, I think Google+ is a pretty convincing product. Even though it's still in a limited field test, I think it's a clean, polished product with some compelling features, and assuming the backend stuff can scale to accommodate the masses, it is a brilliant service that's ready for primetime.

The problem is the elephant in the room - Facebook. Think about the number of friends you have on Facebook, the number of photos you have on Facebook (that's photos uploaded, and/or photos tagged of you). With Google+, it's a reboot - you have to spend time rebuilding things again. One of my friends on Google+ was telling me, as much as he loves Google+, he'll probably stick with Facebook for now because, well, that's where everyone and everything is at the moment.

The other issue right now is that I don't see any feature that is unique to Google+, that is a must-have, and not obtainable anywhere else on the web. Its 3 biggest selling point (as sold by Google) - Circles, Hangouts and Sparks (which is a feed of things that you are interested in, and which you can share with friends), are not that much different from Facebook Lists, Facebook Chat, and Facebook Likes/Share Options on articles in your RSS feed, respectively. The only plus side advantage that Google has right now is that the Google solution is simpler and cleaner. Apart from that, it's the same thing, is it not?

Google has certainly put their back into their latest attempt at going against Facebook - they've come up with a polished, convincing competitor to match Facebook. If Mark Zuckerburg hadn't had the few beers it took for him to kickstart the whole Facebook project, I would have definitely loved Google+ in an instant. It will take a lot of time and effort before people will embrace Google+. Nevertheless, I am hoping for Google to stay with this one for the long-haul and not abandon ship after a few months. After all, as economists would say, competition can be good for consumer choice, as it keeps the competing firms (read: Google & Facebook) on their toes. I'm looking forward to seeing how Google will impact the social networking services industry.