Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Google Plus vs Facebook – An Overview

Google has again entered into the social networking game with new strategies. Google’s new social networking platform Google plus has been released as an “Invite only” release and this is a popular marketing techniques nowadays to intensify the users’ urge to join while doing the beta testing with a limited number of users. I got an invite and explored it for a while and all I can say is Google+ is really cool. However, at this stage it’s very hard to predict if the Google plus vs Facebook competition will make sense. Because, social networking is a market that closely works on peoples’ psychology giving them a virtual world with an environment that they want. Google already has it’s social network Orkut, which has almost been ignored by many and it does not have any potential to grow. It’s still bit popular in India and a few other countries and it speaks all about it. Forget Orkut, even google has forgotten it now.


Facebook is the most successful social network in the internet history, unlike the other social networks facebook’s growth is solid and it keeps the platform changing frequently so as to give the people something new and keeping them busy with them so that they will not feel bored and think of going outside facebook (not for all all but for the majority it works). Moreover facebook started challenging the other Internet giants who are/were not at all into the social networking business. Though google is still the largest Internet company it has been affected a lot by the growth of facebook. How? Because google’s main income is coming from advertising (Google Ads) and after facebook started it’s advertising game (Facebook Ads) the advertisers got another choice and the growth of facebook grabbed some advertising areas from google as the social network allows some kind of unique demographic targeting that a search engine or content network can’t provide. Still Google is bigger than facebook and the Advertising market google has is much higher than Facebook but the things can change in future and it’s likely in come context.
Why google wants to get into the social networking business?
Search engines can’t expand it’s user-base in a bigger way like social networking.  If a person wants to search something on the Internet he will use google – that’s all (forget other search engines since they are too small compared to google). But the social network, on the other hand has a highly expanding user-base. The social networks drag the people into the virtual world and do the necessary things to keep the person inside that virtual world for a long possible time while making him drag some other people too into this virtual world. The more a user spends his time on facebook the greater the money facebook makes. Today facebook has set many new standards to social networking and now facebook’s standards has become the current definitions of social networking. Thus, google can not go away from the current social networking standards and eventually the Google+ looks like a facebook clone. However, one of the nature of the business world is “Copying from other successful businesses”. Facebook copied some core concepts of twitter too in their later releases and those features helped facebook to expand it’s boundaries even more. Due to these issues I don’t see the copying some features of facebook and any other social networks is not going to make google looks bad. It’s just business and as a user what I only want is a social networking environment that gives me the environment I want. Still I don’t want to bring joindiaspora here as it has not proved itself in the real market yet though some features of google+ reminds the joindiaspora (still it’s a beta) too.
The best way to describe an unknown is comparing it with a well known, let me compare Google+ and Facebook!

Google plus vs Facebook – My thoughts :

The pluses of Google+ over Facebook
  1. Google+ provides better privacy and well layered grouping – circles
  2. Google+ does not have annoying applications like facebook (may be yet)
  3. Google+ combines facebook and twitter together when the main features are concerned
  4. Google+ is simple and sweet – May be just because it new
  5. Google+ uses the google chat for chatting. It is much better than facebook chat
The minuses of Google+ over Facebook
  1. Google+ lacks some features that facebook has (Since it’s new and beta)
  2. Google+ does not have anything special for a typical facebook freak who does not care much about privacy
  3. Google+ does not have the own powerful branding as a social network (It’s a sub-product of google and not a mere social network brand like “facebook”) However, this is how it could be released because a unique branding is too weeker to compete facebook

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Google Plus vs Facebook Funny Images Compilation

Google+ , the new and amazing social network from search giant is making waves all around, while still many feeling hard to get an invitation. In the meantime Google+ users have already setup their Google+ profiles  and started posting their views and now the fans of Google+ began creating pictures that shows Google + making fun of Facebook. Here is a compilation of such funny images.

Google Plus has key features of Facebook, Twitter: invite in abundance


Within a week its user base has crossed 10 million. Meanwhile experts are of the opinion that Google Plus combines key features of Facebook, Twitter. Now Google Plus invite seems to be in abundance


Google Plus is creating ripples on the Web. People who love to be connected with their friends online have warmly welcomed the new arrival in the social networking arena. Google Plus, which has been available on an invite-only option at the moment, is expected to get public version sooner. 


Those who joined Google Plus in its early days are indeed impressed about the social networking site from Google. Several people are of view that Google+ is a love child of Facebook and Twitter. The platform definitely merges key features of both Facebook and Twitter. 


Though remaining as an online leader in Web searching and advertising, Google has been trailing in social networking. The company’s previous social networking efforts such as Orkut, Wave and Buzz could not gain traction in online community. 


Google Plus has been touted by the company as a better platform for social networking. Several innovative features may make it a success. It is clear that the platform has borrowed many features from Facebook, the social networking giant with more than 600 members and Twitter, a microblogging behemoth. 


Google Plus’ multiple chatting options, white background, integration with YouTube and Picasa Web Album make the platform a cool social media product. 


Google also provides Plus’ status and notification bar in all its other online services. If you open Gmail, Google Calendars, YouTube or any other Google services, you can find Plus social networking widget in them. It is again a unique feature with the platform.

Monday, July 4, 2011

Immortals (2011 film) Official Trailer from Makers of 300 Spartans.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Immortals is an upcoming 2011 fantasy-action drama film directed by Tarsem Singh and starring Henry Cavill, Freida Pinto, and Mickey Rourke. The film was previously named Dawn of War and War of the Gods before being officially named Immortals and is loosely based on the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur and the Titanomachy.
It is set to be released in 3-D on November 11, 2011 by Universal Pictures and Relativity Media.

Friday, July 1, 2011

Google + Plus - A quick look at the first pieces of the project.

The Google+ Project 

A quick look at the first pieces of the project.



Sharing is a huge part of the web, a part that we think could be a lot simpler. That’s why we’ve been working on adding a few new things to Google: to make connecting with people on the web more like connecting with them in the real world. We hope you like what we’ve cooked up so far. And stay tuned, because there’s more to come.Take a tour

GOOGLE + Plus - Overview Details Discuss


Circles



You share different things with different people. But sharing the right stuff with the right people shouldn’t be a hassle. Circles makes it easy to put your friends from Saturday night in one circle, your parents in another, and your boss in a circle by himself, just like real life.


Sparks


Remember when your Grandpa used to cut articles out of the paper and send them to you? That was nice. That’s kind of what Sparks does: looks for videos and articles it thinks you’ll like, so when you’re free, there’s always something to watch, read, and share. Grandpa would approve.


Hangouts


Bumping into friends while you’re out and about is one of the best parts of going out and about. With Hangouts, the unplanned meet-up comes to the web for the first time. Let buddies know you’re hanging out and see who drops by for a face-to-face-to-face chat. Until we perfect teleportation, it’s the next best thing.

Mobile


Instant Upload

 Watch video
Taking photos is fun. Sharing photos is fun. Getting photos off your phone and on to the web is pretty much the opposite of fun. That’s why we created Instant Upload: so that from now on, your photos upload themselves. You don’t even have to say ‘cheese’.