Now that Google+ has been out for a few weeks now, i’m gonna go on the record and say that I truly believe Facebook is rapidly becoming the Myspace of 20111.

And it’s all their own doing.

Have you noticed the decrease in people posting on Facebook lately? Everyone is rapidly jumping ship onto the Google+ hovercraft. Can’t say I blame them, as i’m right over there by the bar toasting them from afar. There are many reasons people are ditching Facebook as their primary social media page and skipped over to Google+. The main being..

It’s not Facebook.

I was lucky enough to score an invite to Google+ within the first two weeks of the launch. Now it was a bit dry there as many folks weren’t on the site yet, but as time went on and there were friends to organize in the circles and additional features added including picture editing it’s blowing Facebook out of the water.

When was the last time Facebook added a feature that you LIKED or could USE? Don’t worry i’ll wait.

Facebook Deals? You can’t be serious. You know and I know that crap is awful. Majority of the time the “deals” aren’t even that great. Spend $15.00 to get $25 off this or that. Spend $10 for $20. Buy a concert ticket for that artist having issues filling seats. Oh, and don’t forget to print it out and bring the print with you, cause if you don’t your screwed.

Facebook has become that person you’ve been dating for a couple years. It started off as the perfect relationship. They were an adult, they were presentable when you showed them off at the office party. They kept a smile on your face. Then one day you found out that they’ve been hacking into your voicemail and listening to your messages. When you were out of town they brought a couple buddies over to your pad to watch the game (your tv is bigger) and stopped up your toilet and left a festering pile of chicken bones in your trash that’s attracted flies. When your in the bathroom and your cell phone rings, they always grab your phone and answer it even though you asked them not to. When you go out to eat, they do all the ordering. And when you object, they tell you your overreacting or behaving irrationally.

Yep… the douchebag. Facebook has become the jock douchebag of the web.

I don’t believe people are jumping on the Google+ train simply because it’s the newest kid out there. They are jumping because they are sick and tired of being pushed by Facebook. The majority of Facebook’s latest “innovations” have been met with scorn by their user base, but they were simply too wrapped up in their own arrogance to bother listening.

If your users would prefer that their faces and profiles are not used in companies advertising on your site and they make that known, it’s probably not a good idea to chastise them for such. Same for the facial recognition software. You can’t seriously believe that a mass of people were going to embrace such a thing did you? You can’t even keep your users info such as phone numbers and contacts out of the hands of 3rd party developers! And user accounts get hacked all the time by trojan worms. Yet you still want people to “trust” you?

For whatever issues Myspace may have had, to the end it was still a better social networking site then Facebook. Privacy settings were much easier to locate and apply. They didn’t constantly duck for cover behind a forest of trees. You could share a playlist of your fav music and have it running on your page..YOUR PAGE! And express yourself outside of changing your profile pics and posting stories or youtube pics to your wall.

Why is it Facebook has never applied any of these ideals into their “upgrades”? There is talk of adding the ability of streaming movies to Facebook now, but it’s a lil late for that. They had a clear playing field for years without any real competition while folks jumped ship from Myspace. They made the tragic mistake of pissing off their users time and time again to the point where folks were primed for a bigger and better site to come along.

Something tech but fun. Easy to manipulate. With user friendly features. And a way to be interactive with the staff. Facebook made the mistake of never developing an interactive customer service module where users can ask a person a question and receive a response, whether by online chat or email. In fact, their customer service dept by all accounts seems to be practically non-existent. If someone says your page is “offensive” or flags a post, majority of users were given the boot right away. No real appeal process, no one to ask questions, nada. Most users learned how to correct and edit features by their friends or media exposes. Not good.

However, since I joined Google+ I have actually interacted with Google+ employees. Yes, real people! With profiles! And pictures of their faces! Dispensing information, giving/receiving feedback, being friendly and well… social. They even post pics of Google company happenings and music they like from time to time in between their work posts. It’s a really refreshing change and it makes the site more fun and humanizes the company.

Don’t even get me started on Zuckerberg himself. The movie portrayed him as an aloof nerdy selfish young man who does not seem to have much time for things such as feelings. Sure, he went on SNL and poked fun at himself a bit, but the image still stands. And such PR things as donating $$$$ of dollars to the New Jersey School District didn’t really endear him too much to the public as he may have hoped. Especially with the fact that he and his company are located in California. I’m sure those monies donated could have gone a long way in your home state as well. Every school district isn’t as cash flush as Palo Alto’s. Just saying…

Now, Google isn’t without their issues as well. They seem to have a lot of turnover, and there is also some of the same big brother suspicions that plague Facebook. They also recently acquired a facial-recognition company themselves. But…

They are on pace to have more users on their network then Facebook, possibly even before the year is out.

Karma was never known to be kind…

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