Facebook vs. Google+: Which Social Network is Best?
Jan 19, 2012 04:17 PM EDT by Sean Captain, TechNewsDaily Managing Editor 
With more than 800 million users, including 150 million in the U.S., Facebook is a must-have for connecting online simply due to its reach. But Facebook isn’t the best for everything. Google’s young alternative Google+ has a mere 90 million users, but it’s grown quickly in its first seven months. Google+ does several things better than Facebook, and some things Facebook doesn’t do at all.
Though they have a lot in common, the networks are not identical. Google+ is built around group sharing and socializing, using friend lists called Circles to control who sees what. It also offers group chat and video calling. In many ways, though, Facebook stands alone with several unique features such as event invites and special pages for people with common interests.
So which social network reigns supreme? Read on.
January 19th, 2012 at 4:38 pm
“But Facebook allows posting to only one of those groups per update.”
That’s not true. I post to multiple friend lists all the time. Just select “Custom” and you’ve got much more powerful add/remove list options than Google+.
January 20th, 2012 at 6:17 am
Wow was this article biased,… BTW did you take into account the fact that Facebook has official mobile apps available on every platform??? Because Google + doesn’t. Facebook should win just for that.
January 20th, 2012 at 9:49 am
Thanks for commenting.
Adam, thanks for the tip.
MarcVW, thanks for the input. Would you explain in more detail how you believe the article is biased?
January 22nd, 2012 at 11:29 pm
Good article. I find it hard to say that one platform is better than the other because that is not only a question about features and design. The kind of activity that is going on is also an important aspect of the “decision”. A few thoughts:
- Many people will use both Facebook and G+
- G+ and Facebook study eachother’s every move and it might very well be that they will end up looking more and more alike. Facebook’s implementation of the subscription feature is one example.
- I believe that people in a few years time will start asking questions about what they really are getting out of the many hours they spend on social networks. What’s the return on social networking hours so to speak. The winner will be the one that helps people get more value for money. I’m leaning towards G+ on this end.