Google+

Two days ago...

Friend: You want Google+?

Me: Google what?

Friend: Huli ka na sa balita! Want me to invite you so we can "hangout"? Haha!

Me: The hell are you talking about? Haha!

Friend: Parang FB pero mas cute. Ok features niya.

Me: Ahh...explain!

Friend: Google mo!

So yeah...I googled Google+ haha! Apparently, it's being touted as the "Facebook Killer." Pretty ambitious, huh? I'm not saying it's impossible, though. I think it's just too early to tell. Facebook has become the biggest social networking site today with close to 750 million users worldwide, successfully clinching the crown from Friendster. It's not only being used to tell friends about the latest what-nots, but also to disseminate information, support causes, and even hunt for fugitives.

The fact that Facebook has become the go-to social networking site makes it highly unlikely for people to shift overnight. Even for something as big as Google, luring users to yet another social networking site would be far from easy. Google has to come up with a range of features that would differentiate it in order to gain the upper hand in the competition.

Some features that caught my attention are Hangouts (so this is what my friend was referring to haha), Sparks and photo editing through Picasa. Hangouts is the group video chat (up to 10 people) feature of Google+. What's cool about it is that everyone in the group can view a shared content together while talking about it. Sparks, on the other hand, allows users to search for content/information to share with one's contacts. Also, with the integration of Picasa, users can now edit the images that they share.

The integration of social networking features into already existing Google technology, is Google's biggest leverage against its rivals. This makes Google+ Google's best shot at social networking by far. I must say that it looks quite promising, but whether it can deliver is something that remains to be seen.