After over two months of being invitation only the Google social network, Google+, has gone live. Members of the public can now sign up to the site and create new profiles. However, with a user base of tens of millions already it is unclear how much of a difference this public release will make. As you would expect Facebook has been gearing up for the release through the addition of new services and features. That said, the recent changes could be exactly what drives users to Google+ as it has been estimated that there is a fresh status post complaining about the new Facebook features once every ten seconds.
Amongst the Facebook updates is a new sharing function that is very similar to the circles feature in Google+. This could be seen as an attempt to ensure that Google cannot offer people anything that Facebook can’t. The over-complication of Facebook could very well be its death however as some users are complaining that it is one custom background away from becoming the next Myspace.
Google released figures showing that the user base had grown to an impressive 10 million users after just 2 weeks. However since then no new statistics have been released concerning the social network’s user numbers. In comparison Facebook has around 750 million active users 50 percent of which log in every day. Whilst Facebook has fallen on somewhat hard times it still has the potential to hold on to its user numbers.
The recent line of updates to the social network have all fallen short however and whilst Google+ still offers a more streamlined experience there is a real danger of users changing their allegiance.
