Social media flourishes as Google, Facebook, Twitter compete for users
Social networks have become increasingly common in recent years: Skype, Twitter and Facebook being just a few of the online mediums used by millions daily. Communicating with each other has never been easier for those living in the 21st century.
Each service has a specific quality that makes it unique compared to its peers. Skype has video chatting, which is tightly integrated with Facebook, and Twitter has its followers and direct messages. But, now there is a new messenger coming along in its beta stage that attempts to unite all these features into a single website.
Birthed by the search giant, Google+ is its name and it comes with innovative features such as circles and hangouts.
Google+ has drawn in a flood of users in its short life so far. Just recently becoming available to the public on Sept. 20, 2011, it was in an invitation-only field test for several months.
Google+ now features the games and posting abilities of Facebook while also sporting a video chat capability similar to Skype. Brand new features, such as circles, are what make Google+ unique. Circles is a feature in Google+ that allows you to be able to separate your friends into groups.
A student at PVCC, Britton Kelly, said “I really like the idea of the circles; it’d be nice to keep family and friends separate.” The hangouts feature lets you create a video chatroom with up to 10 people. Google+ is available as an application on the Android and iOS systems.
Still, rival websites are unlikely to take this new competition lying down. Facebook has already partnered with Skype to enhance its chatting service to include video capabilities, as well as creating a more streamlined system for its messenger program, which is now available on most mobile platforms is well. And, the developers at Facebook are currently working on a completely new layout, featuring a new profile called the “timeline.”
Further, Twitter has received a huge advantage, at least when it comes to Apple iPhone customers. The microblogging site is now deeply integrated with Apple devices running iOS5, providing users with access to post anything from pictures and video, links to websites, and more.
Google+ is an uprising candidate for top social network. Yet, only time will tell how far it will go. With its new design and applications, it may turn out to be a fresh new take on the social network scene. At the very least, its sudden arrival on the scene will spurn advances across the entire spectrum of social media services. Either outcome, of course, will benefit the end user.
[Image credit to: Miguel Ugalde, sXc]
