Is it Going to Be Google+ vs. Facebook? (BLOG)

(yahoo)COMMENTARY | The social media gauntlet has been thrown out and two Internet heavyweights are starting to circle each other. Current social media champion Facebook has announced a few changes. Those changes timed out rather interestingly with Google+ being made available to everyone. A social media showdown could be in the making.



Perhaps it is just users not liking change, but a survey of 1,000 users revealed about 86 percent of Facebook users strongly dislike the changes to the social platform. Plus, another hoax is making the rounds on that Facebook will start charging. However, the changes will be rolled out completely on Sept. 30.



That date could give Google+ a little more momentum. If Facebook users are truly upset with the changes and do not want to stick around, another social network is opening its arms wide. Google+ could fill the void for many users who are just tired of changes with little or no advanced notice.



The strange part about folks leaving Facebook in favor of Google+ is that change is still change regardless if it is on another website or not. Therefore, if Facebook does see a massive exodus, the company might never really know how much the changes influenced departures. A few years ago, MySpace was the biggest thing on the Internet, but a series of changes, tweaks, and a variety of other reasons led users to Facebook. History could be repeating itself, or maybe the Internet has room for more than one social media heavyweight.



Of course, that is one of the big questions: How many social media sites will users embrace at one time? Google+, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and even MySpace offer a host of different experiences. However, Facebook has more than 750 million user accounts and Google+ has around 25 million, so the score is pretty lopsided right now. But Google definitely has the cash and the Web experience to give Facebook a serious run for their money.



Working against the flood of social networks is an old foe: time. There is a finite amount of time people will spend updating and checking different sites. Folks are probably going to do what their friends do, which is what drives social media anyway. Is it going to boil down to Facebook versus Google+, or is there enough room for both to thrive? Oddly enough, time will tell.