Google+ Pages can get you the light you deserve

All in all, the question must be made: Is Google going to replace existing prominent social media channels, i.e. Facebook?

(here’s an interesting infographic on a statistical comparison of Google+ and Facebook)

Open publication – Free publishing – More comparison

Look Facebook, I’d relax if I had 800 million members and 700 billion minutes spent on my site per month.

What about Twitter? Don’t think so. Taking on Twitter is like taking on…CNN + Steven Harper +Hollywood+ Justin Bieber + 10 million zombies + 250 million tweets a day.

Charlene Li, Founder of Altimeter Group, a social-media advisory firm, told ABC news onJune 30, 2011that Google+’s goal is not to replace Facebook.

“Key thing here is that going against Facebook directly is suicidal,” said Li. “Google has found a seamless formula with more structure. It really is the plus part. It is extending Google’s communication platforms into a unified sharing platform.”

And this strategy makes sense. The social media field will become increasingly hard to break into, without strong structural and technological foundations. Unless a new business social media business model is conceived that entirely redefines the marketplace, it will be hard for new market players to pull users away from their established networks on existing medias such as Facebook. Google, on the other hand, can avoid direct competition and enter into a specific market niche through its existing foundations, and it seems to be following this strategy by linking Google+ to its other services.

Ever heard of the Blue Ocean Strategy? Markets are divided into “red oceans” and “blue oceans.” Red oceans are known market space. There are many competitors fighting for market share. Cutthroat competition turns the ocean bloody. Blue oceans are unknown market space with few competitors who create market shares. New market makes competition irrelevant.

In a red ocean, you update status, stalk, like, tweet, and blog. That’s getting old. In a blue ocean, you fix collaboration and share across applications and across platforms. That’s Google+.

Other interesting features of Google+ are “Sparks” and “What’s hot.” Sparks helps you find interesting content based on your interests. It’s like an automatic Google Reader. What’s hot shows you what is trending.

Other possible business tools Google could be developing are business applications for Android cell phones, a Chrome-Google+ breed, and an integration of Google Maps into the social media cyberspace.

Google+ is still developing, and its success will be proven in the coming months. But besides all the new cool features and the so-called “battle” between Facebook and Google, there is something else you should start thinking about: Who owns your information? Have you ever looked yourself up in 123people.com? Do it. You’ll be surprised to know how much advertisers know about you.

I call Google Inc. the biggest monopoly of history. Not only it is your search engine, but it is also your new browser, your android phone, email, document sharing, Youtube, your GPS, and a database for advertisers. The list goes on. That’s quite a bit of knowledge and power over you.

ARB Team
Arbitrage Magazine
Business News with BITE.

Liked this post? Why not buy the ARB team a beer? Just click an ad or donate below (thank you!)

Liked this article? Hated it? Comment below and share your opinions with other ARB readers!