While Google and Facebook have been doing battle on the periphery for a number of months now, I think we can finally say they have taken the game to center court this week. After being attacked for their lack of innovation as of late, Facebook’s CEO trotted out a number of new features while Google+ opened to the masses underscoring their intensifying competition for Web surfers.
Google integrated its flagship search engine into its 3-month old social network, with membership now open to the general public, and expanded its “Hangouts” video chatto allow mobile use and broadcasting.
And a user can now host an online broadcast with this feature, recording a session and broadcasting it live for public access online. Google said, Black Eyed Peas front man will.i.am will host the first “Hangout on Air” on Wednesday.
“Hangouts should keep pace with how you socialize in the real-world, so today we’re launching it on the one device that’s always by your side: your mobile phone,” senior vice president of engineering Vic Gundotra said on the blog post.
For its part, Facebook said it was introducing a new “ticker” on its users’ home pages, providing real-time notifications of what friends are doing on the service. Facebook also revamped the service’s main news feed to flag important items, such as a new baby announcement, for Facebook memberswho have not logged on for a few days. Facebook also changed the way photos are displayed on the site, increasing the size of pictures that appear in a users’ news feed.
Facebook is the world’s No.1 social networking service, with more than 750 million users. The company has rolled out a series of improvements to its service recently, many of which seem designed to match features Google has used to set itself apart from its rival social networking service, Google+.
Google did not say how many people had signed up for Google+ so far, but confirmed the social networkwas now open to all, whereas previously it had been invitation-only. Analysts estimate upward of 25 million users have joined Google+ since it started.
The company also made its search engine available from within the social network. Users can search from Google+ and get results not just on the network but from the Internet in general.
Google’s infant social network, which counts Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg as a member, has met skepticism so far. Some are waiting to see if it can maintain the rapid momentum of its first months.
If CEO Larry Page’s approach, which some say mimics the instinctive categorizing of friends that occurs in real life better than Facebook – takes off, it will come at a critical moment for its bigger rival given Facebook is widely expected to go public in 2012.
For the end user, if you have to spend time learning how to use the new Facebook features and you’re still trying to sort out what is and isn’t private, it’s easy to see why starting anew with Google+ isn’t that much of a leap. Let the games begin.