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Facebook and Google at each others throats? Social media arena threatened by Google+
Google+
Google+ .The project
Facebook seems pretty riled up by Google's upcoming social network Google+. The new social network by search engine giant, Google, promises to be something to look forward to. Having been slammed in various blog posts as dull and boring,I took a look at it today and there just might be something to write home about.
Hangouts
The first feature that struck me was the Hangouts. This is a feature that shows who who is hanging out where and you can join them to have a face to face chat. Google brands this as "Until teleportation,it's the next best thing ." The concept is solid and as close to real time as one can get online.
Instant Photo uploads
With this feature,the photos you take are instantly uploaded (automatically) to your Google+ private album. This feature is indeed an upgrade to uploading photos manually to your social network album.
Sparks
This feature enables you to basically bookmark your interests directly into your social networking site.In a way you will be cutting out independent bookmarking sites and having it all in one place, using one site.
These are some of the features that Google+ will offer its socialites. The big question then is, will it take off technically? With the brains behind Google I expect it to take off and perform better than expected. The second big question is ,what on earth (no pun intended) is Google trying to do, take over the web? Well, the question of monopolising cyberspace has been around for a long time.My take on it is, let s/he who has the brains,do what they have to.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg
Facebook brings Skype on board
On the other hand,Facebook has plans to bring Skype on board. Skype, the free (Skype to Skype) voice/video calling application is in the process of being acquired by Microsoft (Did I see you cringe?) Facebook's interest in bringing this application on board does not really spell any major changes in social media usage.On the contrary,I personally like to keep Skype away from social media as I keep it for more intimate connections and business.Intergrating it into a social media begs the question-how much can one do? Chat by text,"like" ,"post", "poke" and now "skype" under one roof? Well I am no expert in social media predictions but my guess is people will prefer to keep Skype out of it. Back to the cringe factor-Microsoft is not the best of Masters, the last acquisition it had failed dismally, not to mention that inspite of the upgrades it has invested in Windows, it still has a lot of damage control to do for its awful history. By and large, the incorporation of Skype pulls in Windows which I think is not a good publicity and business move.Again,I am no social/ software guru but I have my reservations.
This article may come across as a bashing of Windows and Facebook, well, in a lot of ways it is.