Q: What does Google+ have that Facebook does not?
A: The power of the world’s most popular search engine.
It was back in July of 2011 when Google allowed it’s relationship with Twitter to expire. This relationship was the backbone for the social networking posts that appeared Google as “real-time” search results. This dissolution happened just a few days after the highly publicized launch of Google+, Google’s competition of Facebook. Speculation has since roared about the how and when Google will incorporate that with it’s search engine.
In a recent panel discussion, moderated by Danny Sullivan, Google Fellow Amit Singhal indicated that Google is actively working on bringing Realtime search back. He also added that Google was experimenting with adding data from Google+ and other sources. The “other sources” were not identified, but one can believe that Google+ will be the dominant force here.
This approach to tie Google+ into Realtime search and likely organic search engine rankings is a strong pull to have the masses join the social networking site. Google+ has seen unprecedented growth in the tech community while in private beta. Many naysayers doubt that Google+ can survive against Facebook because it doesn’t offer great advantages over Facebook. But the one key that Facebook doesn’t hold is the ~80% market share that Google dominates the search landscape with. You can bet that anyone interested in their web presence will adopt Google+ if it begins to influence where your web content ranks in the Google search engine.
Are you using Google+ yet?
You can find me on Google+.