Facebook vs. Google+: Which Social Network is Best?
Jan 19, 2012 04:17 PM EDT by Sean Captain, TechNewsDaily Managing Editor Entertainment
Aside from gossip, neither network offers its own entertainment options, but both connect to game, music and video services.
Entertainment is central to Facebook. The service has fostered multi-billion-dollar game companies by offering users addictive titles such as “Gardens of Time,” “The Sims Social” and “Cityville” (the top three for 2011). Major music and video services also plug into Facebook. Signing up for free online Jukebox Spotify, for example, actually requires a Facebook account. Spotify and other services such as Rdio pump right into the status updates the name of songs that users listen to (if they enable it), so they can automatically show off their musical tastes.
Google+ is just starting with entertainment. It currently offers about 30 games, though the company says many more are coming as it’s working with publishers including EA, Kabam, Playfish, Rovia and Zynga. The only entertainment updates that Google+ can share so far are what someone watches on YouTube or listens to on the not-so-popular Google Music service.
Winner: Facebook
It dominates a category that Google+ is just beginning to enter.
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.