Google Plus vs. Facebook. Whose Winning?

Google Plus vs. Facebook, Who’s Winning?
By Griffyn Carpenter

Not too long ago we all became aware of the new social media craze that had everybody buzzing. It was told to us to be better than Facebook, and a ton better than twitter so of course we all had to check it out. I mean if it is better than Facebook come on whom would not look at it right? In 3 months Google plus has managed to gross over 25 million users which makes it the fastest growing social media platform so far that we have seen. They each have their own pros and cons but it basically comes down to what you prefer the most. One aspect of Google plus that I found very cool was that you can have circles of friends and you can place people in the circles that you wish. I have labeled one circle strictly for “family” another strictly for “friends” and lastly one strictly for “basketball and golf”. You can also choose whose statuses you choose to read, if you are tired about hearing about the annual family cookout on Google plus you can switch from your “family” circle to your “friends” circle and see what they are doing at the moment. I thought that the circles aspect of Google plus was something awesome and something I think will eventually draw tons of users in. Another pro about Google plus is you can limit the people who see your statuses. For example if you don’t want your parents to see the stunts you tried to pull last night, you can restrict your statuses to people who are strictly in friends circles that your parents are not. This would have been incredibly useful in my younger teenage years, but o well I got by. The last thing that I found awesome about Google plus is the video chat feature that they have. The video chats are run through Skype and can potentially link you with 10 different users during a call. This could be very useful for friends and large business conference calls. Facebook also had a lot of pros that Google plus does not. People who are avid users of both sites say that they hate the fact that Google plus is strictly invite only, and on Facebook that is not the case. Facebook is much more of an open forum which tends to appeal to a lot more people. One thing that stood out to me when comparing the two was that on Google plus you must use your real name as a part of their “real name policy”. That was a major turn off for me. On Facebook I use my real name but I add a twist to it. I honor my passed away mother with her initials where my middle name is made to go, on Google plus that would not be possible to do. So I got curious as to how many other people would also feel the same way so I looked around and found a ton of people that do not use their real name as well (or have their real name altered in some way). They each are constantly trying to better one another and it will be a never ending cycle. Facebook just implemented the new and improved “friends list”. This new friends list is basically like the G+ circle. It allows you to choose who can and cannot see your posts without making a circle of friends, which I think fits me better that the G+ circle. Facebook also recently added the “subscribe” button which allows you to keep track of personalities that you are not friends with. It is basically their way of implementing twitter and Facebook in the same platform. The Subscribe button is essentially the follow button that twitter has. This battle for social media supremacy seems like it will be never ending. After reading many articles to try and draw my conclusions, I have found myself agreeing with most all of the experts when they say that Facebook will continue to dominate the social media platform now and for years and years to come.