Do you have your own social media network page? Of course you do. It has been the craze of the millennium and billions sign on to use these websites everyday. Facebook.com has been the most popular social media over the past few years; however, on June 28th, 2011 Google Inc. launched their version of social media called Google+. Immediately a buzz surrounded the social media globe as many suspected that with the entrance of corporate powerhouse (Google) into social networking that it would soon over take Facebook as the leader in Social Media. Now over six months in to their campaign, Google+ still sits behind in the rankings compared to #1 Facebook and I believe (along with others) that is exactly where Google+ will remain for a long time.

Google is entering into the social media game a little too late. This is not like when Facebook overtook MySpace as number 1. Why? Well when Facebook entered into the battle over number 1 with MySpace, Zuckerberg took information management to the next level which MySpace simply did not have the vision to do. The change Facebook made compared to MySpace was huge, but the proposed ideas Google+ are making are simply not “BIG” enough to smite Facebook. Google+ will never gain enough respect to surpass Facebook because Google Inc. will always be seen as the search engine corporation. In marketing terms (as taught by the great Dr. Powell) “It is better to be first than to be better.” This means that since Facebook was the first at enhancing and mastering information sharing they will always be the go-to network even if someone can better their ideas (much like people believe Google+ has done).

Still don’t believe me? Here’s a quote form the Kanzuru Blog called “Why Google+ Will Never Surpass Facebook – Sorry Google Shareholders, it is not the next Facebook Killer” or as seen on technorati.com  under the title “Why Google+ is not the Facebook it Thinks it is.” The article says, “People will always see Google as just that: Google. Google is merely about information and passing information from one person to the next, from one point to another. This is all about marketing 101 – branding.” The article continues by going on to say, “Google is an information or “search for information” brand, not a social networking brand. Google+ does not have all of the quirks that made Google, “Google” when it came into the business of transferring information. Google was in and of the same – it was it’s brand but it was also it’s action, and it’s essence.” Though Google is a huge corporation and undoubtedly has created some of best innovations of the 21st century, it will never become the number 1 social media network it wants to become. Mainly, because Facebook is just better.

Here’s the link to the Kanzuru Blog that I used my quotes from:

http://onekanzuru.wordpress.com/2011/07/18/why-google-will-never-surpass-facebook-sorry-google-shareholders-it-is-not-the-next-facebook-killer/

It seems as though we’ve been living with the “like” button our whole lives.  But, in reality, Facebook only introduced the feature in 2009.  Pretty surprising considering how fast the idea of “liking” has been  disseminated across our popular culture.  So while everyone knows Facebook and Google are the new superpowers of the internet, it seemed strange Google hadn’t dipped it’s toes into the data grabbing business of Facebook – which tracks all your “likes”.

Enter Google’s “+1″ function.  Similar to Facebook’s idea of “liking” anything from groups, to people, to companies, to whatever – Google takes this concept and applies it to search.  Now, when you search, every entry will have the option – even ads.  Like Facebook and your friends, all your Google contacts will be able to see your “+1′s”.

Despite this concept being quite new, it has already received significant coverage from both SEOmoz and SearchEngineLand.  It seems as though Google is toying with the more social aspects of the web’s viral and community potential within their own search format – a “Social SEO”.  Only time will tell what more experimental approaches Google could employ within their search platform.

I recently upgraded to a smart phone, the Motorla Droid from Verizon Wireless. Last week, Verizon Wireless released an over the air update to the Android 2.1 operating systems, and some really cool new features were added to my phone. However, along with these was a piece of software that kind of baffles me.  It is called Google Goggles, and the premise behind it is that you point your phone’s camera at something, such as a bar code, label, or famous landmark, and the software will analyze the photo and then give you resources to learn more about whatever it was that you took a picture of. I played around with it a little bit, and it was able to recognize a few different labels and brands, and I guess it was kind of fun for like five minutes. But when I really think about it, I can’t find reason why you would ever really need to use this. The software only really works on well known objects anyway, so if you have a smartphone it would be a lot more time efficient and easier to just look search for it on Google than to take a picture of it and wait for Google Goggles to analyze the photo. Maybe as Google refines and advances the software it might prove usable, but for now it is just a fun thing to play around with whenever you are bored.

A brand new social networking site was launched several days ago by Google, called Buzz. Google Buzz is a new way to share updates, photos, videos, and start conversations about the things you find interesting. If you own a Gmail account, you’re already set up to follow the people you email and chat with the most. This new tool comes with many features that implicate dramatic change within the social networking/media arena. Over the past couple weeks, data shows that “over 160,000 Google Buzz posts and comments per hour.” But why is this social networking site so popular? How is Google Buzz different than Twitter or Facebook?

Here are some of its new features that distinguish Buzz from Twitter and Facebook:

Email

• Integrated with one of the most widely-used email services on the planet.
• One less browser window and one less login.
• Email, chat, and social media functions are in one place.

Smart Auto-following

• Auto-detects the contacts that you communicate with most and immediately follows them.

Instant Fullscreen Media Viewing

• Shows pictures and video immediately viewable from the Buzz feed in fullscreen mode.

Choosing Media Associated with Links

• Pulls pictures and video from the pages posted and lets you choose what media to post with the link.

Location-Based Posting and Results

• Translates the latitude and longitude of your exact location into a place name and can identify if you are at home or at work.

Instantaneous Privacy Settings for Posts

• Provides a simple dropdown box in the posting window that lets you easily change privacy settings for each post.

Recommendations

• Identify posts from friends of a friend that may be interesting to you based on past behavior.  They are easily ignorable as well.

Relevancy Rankings for the Google Buzz Feed

• Identifies the relevancy of each post based on what the post contains, who and how many people have commented on it and the location of the sender. If it is interesting, according to your taste (through likes and dislikes), it goes to top of news feed.

Article Reviewed:

http://mashable.com/2010/02/14/google-buzz-column/

When I logged on to my Gmail account today, instead of being taken directly to my inbox, I was shown an invitation to start using Google Buzz. I immediately ignored this and went to my inbox, but after checking my mail I decided to do some reading into what exactly this new Google application was.

Apparently Google is trying to enter into the social networking scene. Now, Google is good at just about everything it does. Gmail, Google Chrome, Google Maps, etc. The list goes on and on. Not to mention the fact that it is the number one search engine on the entire Internet. However, I just don’t see them being able to erode the monopoly that Facebook and Myspace’s have on social networking in today’s world.

Google Buzz is basically a way to link Gmail with different programs such as Twitter, Flickr and other social networking and media tools. This might seem like a good idea on paper, but when you add things such as status updates and media sharing, it just seems like yet another attempt to do what Facebook does best. On top of that, Google is trying to make social networking more open and public and wants to link this information into search engines so that it is more accessible to others on the web.

Almost everyone has a Facebook and loves using it, so why would anyone want to start their social life from scratch on some new program that barely has any users? And when you take away the privacy that Facebook offers, it makes Google Buzz even more unattractive. People like comfort, and Facebook is what people are comfortable with when it comes to social networking. Google can try and make this popular, but my guess is that most people are going to do what I did and completely ignore the invitation to try yet another Facebook or Myspace.