The latest salvo in the battle for social media supremacy is the introduction of Google+, an attempt by the search engine giant to confront the growing popularity (and profitability) of Facebook.
As described in a various online articles, Google+ offers new and convenient features that will appeal to many individuals and businesses that communicate through social media. Its capabilities enable users to target “Circles” – specific target audiences – as well as video chat and group chat. Plans call for the assimilation of Google’s Picassa and Blogger into the new platform, creating greater integration of capabilities.
Of course, competitors are already responding with upgrades of their own. For example, Facebook is integrating a number of new features, including its own video chat capability, in partnership with Skype. Google+ has upped the ante and the entire social media industry is responding swiftly.
Is this a major change in the basic fabric of social media? Probably not, but Google+ bears watching for the bundled social media services it will provide and for the influence it will have on its competitors.
Once upon a time, Microsoft dominated the computer world. And, for a while, Microsoft was able to thwart upstart competitors – particularly in new software companies – from gaining market share.
The Internet changed all that with the rise of Google, Facebook, Twitter and other interactive services. Even Apple found new and creative ways to build market share, while Microsoft repeatedly struggled in vain to compete with failed smartphones and Internet projects that imitated existing technology.
Only time will tell whether Google will be able to maintain its array of diverse services to beat the competition or whether it will suffer the same fate as Microsoft. If the brief history of the computer/online industry is any indicator, some upstart company now forming in someone’s garage or dorm room will probably rise with an entirely new idea that will signal the next great war for dominance.
By David Stiefel
