Facebook vs Google+ The Rivalry Continues : Circles, Smart Lists, Subscribers, Privacy Options

Ever since the Google+ inception there has been an ongoing rivalry between the older, more established Facebook and the newer Google+. Welcome to 2011, where one of our biggest decisions is which social networking site is better. The two sites have been taking tips from one another’s successes and improving on their respective spaces in attempts to prove that they are the dominant choice.


So what’s new now? Facebook has taken a page from Google+ and made it just that much better. Since the beginning, you have had your list of “friends” and up until now, your “friends” have included everyone – your BFF’s, your acquaintances from high school, and that girl or guy you met at the bar last night. Until now, that is.

illustration: zirta.net

When Google+ debuted, they unveiled their version of “friends”; except their version includes “circles”, which allowed you to have Twitter-esque followers and Facebook-like friends. The differentiation was phenomenal because now you could share things with those you wanted to share with and hide things from those you didn’t want to share with (for instance, your parents).

 That’s not to say that Facebook didn’t allow for certain privacy settings when it came to posts, they did – but you had to manually go through and identify each person you didn’t want reading your posts. It’s a bit of a hassle when you have to go in and insert every person from your workplace that you’re friends with because you were unable to decline their request. That’s an awkward water cooler chat… “No, I got your friend request and declined it… Sorry about that…” Yikes.


Not to worry though, Facebook just made it a bit easier. Drawing from the idea of Google+ circles, now you will have Smart Lists. These lists will be partially created by you and partially generated automatically. The ones that are pre-made for you will segregate people with commons features, such as work and family. These will automatically update themselves. The ones that you create will be created by you designating people as your best friends, acquaintances, etc. These you will need to manually update.


This will also streamline your news feed, giving you updates from your closest friends and sidelining posts from those people you never interact with, which will help users from having to wade through posts that are meaningless to them to find those that are important.


One good thing from the ongoing rivalry is evident – it’s caused both social networking sites to take a closer look at what works and what doesn’t work. For now, Facebook still reigns supreme, but it will be interesting to see if Google+ overtakes Facebook as each continues to grow and evolve.



This is a guest post from Laura Backes, she enjoys writing about all kinds of subjects and also topics related to internet service in my area You can reach her at: laurabackes8 @ gmail.com.



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