I recently watched an old interview with Mark Zuckerberg on 60 Minutes from around the time when Facebook was launching a redesign in 2010. A few minutes into the interview, Zuckerberg provided information about what he thought the future of the internet would be. While 60 Minutes’ reporter Lesley Stahl described it as “The internet will soon be Facebook…”, Zuckerberg explained that he felt friends and online social circles will play a large role in how we all surf the web as individuals. Though “Sharing”, “Liking”, and “Recommending”, web users could find more relevant or curated content from all over the internet, via a friend, family member, colleague, etc.
Zuckerberg felt that this is what would make products – and the Internet itself – more engaging.
About a month ago, Google+ was released. In just one month, twenty million users signed up to the invite-only social network created by Google.
In many ways, Google+ is exactly what Zuckerberg envisioned in his interview. With Google already owning so much real estate on the Internet, there’s a tremendous potential for their homegrown social platform to be successful.
Upon first glance of the Google+ dashboard, you will notice some basic similarities to Facebook. There are some user interactions that play out nicely with the interface, especially the ability to drag and drop your friends in to what Google+ calls “Circles”. Circles show promise in the area of privacy in that you have more control in who you share your information with. However, it is much too earlier to tell how Google+ will do in comparison to Facebook, especially when it comes to user base.
While many people are signed up with Google+, the usage is not nearly as high as Facebook. According to Business Insider, a person’s average time on Google+ recently suffered a 10% drop from when the product launched.
If this continues, Google+ will join the many other social networking sites that stand behind Facebook.
Oh and to answer the question originally posed: Google+ doesn’t have it’s own Twitter account, per se, but the official @Google does not follow Facebook on Twitter to date.
