The Plus Factor
September 5, 2011 by admin
Filed under Lingerie Events
It’s possible the competition of Google+ will eventually force Facebook to be condemned to the social mogul graveyard along with LiveJournal, MySpace and AOL.
Considering it’s already had 20 million visitors within three weeks of its launch, the site is now rated as the fastest growing social network ever, according to a comScore study.
Another study submitted by the tracking firm revealed some demographic differences between those searching Google+, the newest social service, and those looking for Facebook. As of July, the percentage of those searching Facebook were largely over the age of 35 (only 24 percent were under age 35) compared to 34.2 percent of Google+ searchers under 35.
The study also stated that Google+ users were found to be of a more affluent demographic.
Why is all this significant? Well, if we “are what we search,” it might follow that those searching for Facebook or Google+ are thinking about joining or are already in the networks. If Google+ follows the the course of the technology adoption lifecycle, which identifies trend-seeking Innovators and Early Adopters on average as young, more educated and prosperous, it may not be long before we see the Early Majority following suit and Facebook becoming a secondary networking site.
As it stands, Facebook is the most visited website in the world on Google’s top 1000 list for 2011. But then again, so was MySpace five years ago, and now it’s not even in the top 50.
Why You Pickin’ On Facebook?
It’s not that I don’t like Facebook. It’s my favorite site because all of my friends are on it. It’s just that Facebook used to be an exclusive club, entered only by Harvard students, and then soon after, all college students. You had to have a university e-mail address or you were out.
But then organizations had free reign, followed by advertisers and high school kids. Then one is suddenly inundated with friend requests from aunts and uncles and then your own parents, leaving the Facebook college generation scratching its head wondering, how did our club include the whole world?
And so it’s a no-brainer to me that Google+ users are largely young. It is likely they are recent college grads—once of the AOL Instant Messenger generation—looking for a new home.
Google+ has created buzz because it honed in on exclusivity to join, just as Facebook originally did. Invites are the only way in, and it seems mystery is compelling millions.
Beyond exclusivity, there’s a factor of safety. Many college students I’ve talked to during Facebook’s initial launch actually pointed out that they felt safe because one had to have a university address before being able to join. And if you’re with a university, you’re trackable. As proven in the accusations against Facebook in the light of the riots in London, people can just make up identities for their profiles, making Facebook actually faceless. One can get caught up in the social part of networking and forget who has access to potentially sensitive information.
I think people will end up joining Google+ simply because it’s a reorganization for networking. In the same way I think of my cell phone as my real phone and my house phone as a decoy for people I don’t really know, users who have both Facebook and Google+ will use one as a lure for those who wish to “keep in touch.”
Either way, we’ll know soon.
