This has been the clash of giants from the very beginning. Facebook built a solid social networking portal from the scratch. Then, one day powerful Google woke up and realized their users now spend more time on Facebook, which is a bad omen looking at trends on the Web. So, Google decided to use the power of their users-base to instantly open up social networking to millions of people.
Based on the complaints of Facebook users, Google Plus rolled out a more privacy-inclined portal where users have firm grip of their activities. Facebook reacted with multiple changes, and introduced new features. Unfortunately, timeline is one of the most impactful on their users’ experience, and Facebook timeline is compulsory.
Recent statistics show that Google Plus will attain a users-base of over 400 million by the end of 2012. This is not unrealistic looking at the features available on the social network and their grip on their present users. Unfortunately, this is not good news for Facebook, and the weight of the competitor, Google, makes the present grouchy reaction to Facebook timeline by some people very precarious.
To stand at par with Google Plus’ privacy features, Facebook initially allowed their users to categorize and select audience for every post. Subsequently, Facebook Ticker was introduced to unclutter the stream of updates on users’ homepage. Just before 2011 came to a close, Facebook timeline was introduced to open up hidden posts, and you can now hide or delete untoward posts. More recently, Facebook “Messenger for Windows” desktop client was made available to the public to increase engagement on their website.
Of all these changes, Facebook timeline is the one causing some ripples. This appears to be a huge opportunity for Google to divert the attention of many of the users of Facebook to their social networking portal. Unfortunately, these people are still very reluctant to leave their friends behind to a virgin land.
Is the Competition Good for You?
The answer to this question depends on who you are. Obviously, you would prefer to have all your clients in one place to answer their questions and pitch to them. Now that there is a divide, you have to spread yourself to attend to the two social networking portals. As an individual, the competition seems to be breeding innovations. Both social networks have continued to make their portals easier to use in order to retain more users.
If you are thinking of switching over to either of Facebook or Google Plus, you have to face the same devil either way. If you haven’t been on Google Plus, you need some time to get used to the platform. If you are not happy with timeline, it is probably because you haven’t learned the privacy settings.
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