A common suggestion by much wiser and older individuals than myself is that 'you learn more from mistakes than your successes.' Perhaps this is what Google has done. Google+ launched recently to virtually worldwide critical acclaim. Google has attempted developing a social media platform that could rival Facebook for years. Remember Buzz and Wave? How did it get everything so monumentally wrong with its two previous attempts?
Tech start-ups, and more recently social media platforms, for the most part have been cyclical. Remember MySpace? From being social media king to virtually nothing within 2 years. MySpace was dogged by long term restrictive advertising agreements and a lack of innovation, while contenders Facebook and Twitter consistently added new features to improve the social media experience.
Facebook has remained a relative constant in social media, having launched in 2003 and overtaken MySpace as the leading social media platform in North America since 2008. Innovation and improving the user experience have been fundamental to its continued success. However, perhaps Facebook may have missed a trick or two.
Trick One: Circles
According to Facebook, the average user has 130 friends but for many the number is much larger. On Facebook's News Feed, information about what all these friends have shared, liked, discussed etc., compiles in the user's News Feed without any real filtering mechanism. Quite cleverly, Google recognised this was a potential reason why some had left their Facebook accounts dormant or left the platform altogether.
To differentiate itself and accommodate for this user- feedback, Google has created Circles. Circles allow you to organise clusters of people in your life, so in effect, you only view news from those you are most interested in. Facebook's version was a complete flop. According to TechCrunch only 5% of Facebook users have used their 'lists,' which has a similar purpose. The Circles concept is meant to be much more intuitive and visual, allowing the user to easily make changes to each Circle with minimal effort.
Although Facebook's lists concept is virtually identical, it was marketed poorly and it made little sense of user feedback. Had they done so, and made the interface more straight forward and more visual, it would be more commonplace online.
Trick Two: Hangouts
Working alongside the Circles concept, Hangouts enable you to have a video conversation with your circle of friends all at the same time (a maximum of 10 at once). This unique concept integrated into the platform itself may be an appealing feature for new users and it seems to have caught Facebook off guard.
Facebook is likely to have its own version ready for the public soon, although no Facebook video release date has been confirmed yet. It is likely to work in a similar manner to Google+ and will have a significant advantage over G+ in terms of an already well-established user base. By the time that G+ releases to the general public (widely anticipated to be around Q4 2011/Q1 2012), Facebook will have its own version integrated and running smoothly. As a result, this feature isn't much of a threat to Facebook - more so to Skype's existence (currently owned by Microsoft).
Post By Michael Thomas. You Can Follow Him At @gen_social