Google+ hit the ground running (Entry 3)

A screenshot of my Google+ profile. Which I admittedly haven't been using much. It's such a hassle to maintain more than one social networking account. I don't even bother much nowadays. It would make sense to maintain a Facebook and a LinkedIn account, and have your LinkedIn handle all your work contacts and Facebook your social contacts, or in that sense have different social networking accounts handle different aspects of your life. If you can maintain that for a considerable amount of time, then you either have a lot of discipline or a lot of time on your hands.

Anyways, one of the things that surprised me about Google+ was how fast it got up and running as compared to other social networking sites. Facebook, for example, took years and slow expansion from Harvard, to other Ivy League schools, Oxford, and finally to the public. Google+, within days of opening, exploded with memberships. Even though initial membership and beta testing was on an invite-only basis (which I got, and it feels so exclusive :D), there was a point during beta testing when unlimited inviting was open during this period and Google was so swamped with requests that they had to shut that service down within a day.

Another thing that surprised me was how, as Google+ started to grow in popularity, that Facebook was starting to copy it. I noticed it when the updated Facebook included setting who sees your individual posts, which was something that Google+ did first. Another thing was how Facebook was changing the way we organized our friends such that it resembled Google+'s Circles.And here I was thinking that Google+ was just a white, ad-free, Farmville-free version of Facebook.

It only goes to show how threatened Facebook is by Google+. The thing is, how long can either survive? They both seem rather popular, but in the end, they might wind up being stuck in a stalemate of popularity with loyalists on both sides. Like Coke and Pepsi, or Windows and Mac, or the iPhone and the Blackberry.

Oh wait, I think the iPhone is winning that one. Epicly winning. I don't hear of iPhone users converting to the BB.

Anyway, in the end, I think my Google+ account is just going to end up collecting dust while I continue to update my Facebook account. Unless Anonymous really does shut down Facebook.

So which is going to win? Or rather, which are you rooting for?


Let me know in the comments section down below!