Now, Google is attempting to enter the fray as well.  You may have heard about this little thing called Google Plus.  Google has attempted to enter the social area before but with little success.  That said, their recent attempt with G+ is their best yet.  Combine all this activity with the recent flurry of IPOs and ridiculous fundraising, and you’ve got yourself a social arms race.

 

Back to Google Plus, I’ve seen a lot of talk about G+ being a “Facebook-Killer” or G+ versus Facebook.  I’ve also seen some people suggest that this isn’t really the discussion we should be having because Google Plus is so much more than a social network like Facebook. 

 

I tend to agree with that last statement.  I see Facebook as mainly status updates with commenting.  Sure, you can add events and private messaging, but that isn’t the primary function of the site.

 

Google is poised to integrate status updates, email, chat, calendar, video chat, places, docs, search, and much more into the same platform.  Name one other company doing this much on all these fronts-at the same time.  The only one even close to offering something of this nature is Facebook, but they don’t even compete in some of these areas with Google.

 

I’ve been field testing Google Plus and it’s a very nice product.  I can say one thing, it’s definitely nice to not have to go to multiple sites for my daily activities.  I’m not saying Google Plus will succeed completely in mass adoption.  Heck, I’m almost half tempted to think it will really only catch on with the more tech-savvy folks.  

 

Regardless, the consolidation of Google’s tools and the integration across services is only going to make Google stronger; especially for those people like myself who use Google’s tools.  We’ll have to wait and see if they “win” against Facebook, but one thing is for sure, the social arms race is in full effect.