Facebook vs. Google+
Competition is good for any industry. It’s healthy. And we all like to have options. In the area of social networking, Facebook is currently at the top for many reasons. If you use Facebook, especially as a business or something other than personal, you already know those reasons. Of course there are other social networking services, but quite honestly, there hasn’t been anything that comes close to what Facebook offers. That is, not until Google decided to get into the game.
When Google announced their social networking service, Google+, it seemed as though Facebook’s reign at the top would soon come to an end. Google+ was all the hype, especially because you could only get Google+ accounts by invitation only. I’m a big fan of Google, so naturally, I was excited to see what Google+ could offer and signed up right away. After a couple weeks of using Google+, my initial excitement turned into disappointment. G+ didn’t offer anything different from Facebook. The way stories are shared viewed are presented differently, but fundamentally, their G+’s offerings are identical to Facebook’s. As a business, G+ didn’t give me any reason to use its services because they didn’t have any services that catered to businesses. For this reason, my disappointment in G+ turned into wonder. As in, I wondered when G+ will fold and meet its fate like Google Wave and Google Buzz.
Today, with the announcement of Google+ Pages for businesses and brands, my wonder has turned to hope! For CHAOTIME, there’s finally a solid reason to use Google+. Even though it isn’t ready yet, I think this new service will give Google+ a much needed recharge and bring its activity level back up (my current G+ stream is a ghost town). Here’s the official Google announcement of Google+ Pages for businesses and brands.
Will this be the beginning of the end for Facebook? We’ll see just have to wait and see…
UPDATE: Create your own Google+ Page here!
iPhone 4s and iOS 5 Announcement Summary
Today’s “unveiling” was pretty much a disappointment to me, as far as the iPhone is concerned. Perhaps there were too many rumors and too much hype — I actually let myself get too excited because I love technology and new electronic gadgets (toys). Personally, I was really hoping for more than just an improved camera, 1080p video recording, and a faster processor for the “new” iPhone (dual-core A5 chip). While these upgrades are great improvements, they are not revolutionary. In fact, I think these upgrades only brought the iPhone current with its biggest competitor’s hardware features, the Android.
On the more positive side of today’s announcement, iOS 5, which comes out next week (October 12, 2012), does have a lot of new features that I’m pretty excited about though! For personal reasons, I’m really looking forward to the “Card” feature. This new feature allows you to create greeting cards on your iPhone or iPad, upload it, and Apple will print a hard copy and send it out for you ($2.99 domestically and $4.99 internationally)! A second new feature of iOS 5 that I’m looking forward to is the access to the camera. One word: easyquickandconvenient! They’ve now placed the camera button right on the lock screen for quicker access and, while in camera mode, the “volume up” button becomes the shutter release button. This is a big convenience update for me! The “Wifi Sync” and “AirPlay Mirroring” are a couple notable features that I’m also looking forward to. Siri, a voice-command “personal assistant” app is also included in iOS 5. I’m not interested in talking TO my phone to get things done so this feature isn’t really a big deal to me. For a full list of iOS 5 features, you can go to Apple’s iOS 5 Features page.
Lastly, I thought Tim Cook did a fantastic job in his first public appearance as CEO. His demeanor was actually a lot like that of Steve Jobs; humble, friendly, and unassuming. Great choice as Steve Jobs’ successor!
In a nutshell, if you already own an iPhone 4, I don’t think the hardware improvements are compelling enough to get the iPhone 4s. I’m not thrilled about the iPhone 4s, but iOS 5 offers some great stuff. I’m still waiting for the iPhone 5… and iPad 3!
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