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DQ News: Is Google+ a Facebook Killer?

Google+ are currently asking business to withhold from signing up to the new service until it is fully rolled out with all the bugs beta’d out of the application. Which makes sense as over the past five years social media has taken off as the key means to develop relationships with users, clients and business partners, it’s far easier to follow some-one or invite them as a friend than it is to develop a relationship over the phone or via email.

Google Dominance

A quick search of search engine market share reveals that Google commands 83.62% of the global use of internet search facilities, next most popular is Yahoo, Microsoft’s Bing comes in fourth with 3.5% of internet users choosing it above all the others.

While Google offers free search which can be tweaked to suit your preferences, free email which doesn’t have adverts in the body and is easy to navigate without doing unexpected actions if you click too many boxes when you finally get around to cleaning out your inbox (Yes Hotmail, I’m looking at you!) with the introduction of Google+ they’ve essentially guaranteed their ownership of the web (top layer at least, the invisible web is another story).

Many Issues with Facebook

Social media is a fundamental part of many people’s lives now but many people have a trust issue with Facebook,  when it started it seemed that it was only going to let you network with people you really did know in the Real World but as the opportunities for business and marketing were realised each user became a potential target for marketing so change after change was introduced. Now many users find that things happen to their account and they have to opt out rather than opt in. They don’t always appreciate that kind of meddling.

But Facebook is a free service and they have to make their money somewhere so we can’t complain… But now we have a serious option. MySpace was once Facebook’s only relevant  competition yet it’s been sold for a fraction of its purchase price from a few years ago and last week saw a search for MySpace directing immediately back to Google’s home page. Today things seem back to normal but you can probably remember the media frenzy when Facebook dropped out for a few hours some time ago. When it happens to MySpace: not a peep.

What Does This Mean for You?

But what does all that mean to consumers and users?Essentially, once business is able to register on Google+ Facebook could go the same way as MySpace. I’m already going through the long and drawn out process of migrating my data from Facebook to Google+, I like Chrome as a browser, I have been a big fan of Gmail since I started beta-ing that too so why wouldn’t I? And many other people will too, even if they don’t delete their accounts they will surely migrate away from Facebook and set up a new account, link it in with their RSS reader, calendar, email and docs and find that they have very little reason to look at Facebook, in much the same way that people don’t tend to look at MySpace any longer. Google will have achieved its master plan and taken over complete control of the internet.

Again, like Facebook, Google is a free application and if you don’t like it you can always use the other products which are available but if you’re in business and you’re involved in digital marketing or an active social media aficionado then getting a presence within Google itself, via Google+ is going to be far more important to SERPs than trying every-one to ‘like’ you on Facebook.

About the Author: @DanCash is a feature writer and SEO copywriter focusing on social media training. Follow me on Twitter for my views on the impending battle to the death of one or other social platforms.

Photo Credit: richardmasoner & benstein

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