So far the +1 resembles facebook like and the Google+ is more straightforward move to get a cut on facebook's share in social media. From Google's point of view, it was absolutely necessary to retain the crown.
I have some experience in running several ad campaign both on Google and Facebook over last couple of years. Based on the product and target perspective buyers, facebook can be an easy pick for many businesses. Google shows ads based on what someone is currently looking. So if you are looking for a new LCD TV, there is little chance that you see an advertisement of a restaurant. And even if you see the ad, there is little chance that your home is nearby the restaurant. On the other hand if you restaurant is situated near XYZ company head office or ABC university, you can just run a campaign targeting only the employees or students who regularly pass your shop. Its that simple. If you have a hiphop band, you can run a campaign to reach only those people who likes Eminem in your area. The more narrowed down target, the more return on your small money. Secondly, people spend lot of time in facebook. In my last trip to Thailand, I found at least 80 percent people in cyber cafes open facebook first before checking email. And with integration of facebook like and other social plugin, facebook has extended their mining field to many other websites. So the advantages of Facebook over Google in collecting user data are -
- People are more regular, more page views, and some spend more time in facebook
- Users are tracked through all their facebook activities and visits other sites with facebook social plugins
- People are willing to provide more information to facebook about their location, job, likes, and family members
Still Google shines on running global campaigns and intelligently determining people's need. Reach to the people who need some products like the one you produce/serve right now. Those people will most likely buy for sure because they already set their mind. Google is in edge many places because -
- Reach to those who need your product right now
- Variety of ad options with size, graphics and ad on other websites
- When reach is more global, expenses are likely to come down
But facebook is also building people's preference list with wide usage of different social plugins across the globe. They got enought data. Think what if facebook launches their own adsense! They can roll out right now only if they wish, I can tell you!!
Google's "+1" usage is not that widespread yet. And people moving to Google+ overnight isn't possible either. Even those who opened accounts in Google+ and loved the interface will have to maintain facebook for a long time until all their friends/family made the move. Thats also not going to happen anytime soon. So facebook need not to worry right now rather think about their future plan to retain users. By this time the data they collect through even little "+" usage is important for Google to keep their edge.
