Wednesday is a day of big events in the social networking platform arena. Google+, the new platform by Google, the world’s dominant search engine company, went public. Previously requiring invitations to join, the site is now accessible to all. Facebook , the social network with over 750 million subscribers according to its statistics page, also released an entirely new look and feel to its site. How will people react?
Facebook is known for frequent revamps, many of which arrive without warning and substantially change the user experience. Charla Driskill MacDonald, a mother and part-time child care provider from Harlingen, Texas, has been a Facebook user for about two years. She plays Facebook games and uses the service to stay in touch with friends, family, classmates and organize PTA and Girl Scout troop business with other local parents.
“I think it’s ridiculous that they keep changing things. I’ve only been using [Facebook] for two years and it just keeps changing. I played 10 minutes of a game and when I was done my Home button was someplace else. What’s up with that?” MacDonald said.
Some changes bother her more than others.
“My biggest pet peeve is with the chat list,” MacDonald said. “They used to have it organized so it just showed you who was online. Now it shows you names of people that haven’t been on in days. And the status bar is gone, now you have to click to get it. Crikey!”
The timing of Facebook’s latest round of changes coincide with the go-public date of newcomer Google+. Debbie London Braconnier, a freelance writer from Las Vegas, expressed surprise at the timing and a belief that the changes were confusing.
“The new Facebook is a mess and I don’t see why it needed changing. I have been on Google+ for some time and it amazes me that FB would go about making all these changes on the same day Google+ goes live to everyone,” Braconnier said. “Google+ is very clean and very user friendly while at the same time Facebook seems to be doing everything it can to become more difficult and confusing for users.
“If it weren’t for the large number of connections I have already on Facebook I would definitely be switching over to Google+ completely. I will be spending a lot more time building my connections on Google+ after this new FB change.”
Braconnier is not alone in expressing dissatisfaction and intent to work on switching from Facebook to Google+. Kelli Melocik, a university student from San Jose, Calif., is using Google+ with increasing frequency.
“Only a handful of my friends were on there [Google+] originally, but now it has grown on me and I use it daily. It’s simple,” Melocik said. “I can read my Stream, catch up on what friends are doing, and then get on with my day. I think I will see more of my friends there now that it is publicly available.”
After reviewing her new Facebook news feed, Melocik said, “I don’t like how Facebook decides who I will see updates from. It’s like my news feed is a popularity contest. I just want to see all the updates from all my friends without Facebook picking and choosing for me.”
Others still find Facebook to be easy to use. Rachel Rosenthal, a placement coordinator from Downer’s Grove, Ill., is sticking with Facebook for now.
“I use Google+ but not as much as I did in the beginning,” Rosenthal said. “Right now I’ll stick with Facebook. I guess it seems a little easier to interact with, and find, people [on Facebook than on Google+].”
Rosenthal is not immune to the frustration of Facebook’s frequent, unannounced changes, however. She added, “If they keep messing with my news feed and my workaround stops working, well, I’ll revisit switching to Google+.”
Simplicity attracts some users to Google+, as does its integration with other Google tools. Novelty also has an impact. Steven McNally, CSO of FlagPipe, LLC, in Leominster, Mass., tried Google+ for the first time Wednesday.
“It feels cool to be the first of my friends to join these new Circles. It also feels kind of like Facebook from the old Harvard Yard days,” he said. “The best part is that my Google stuff, email, calendar, pictures and such, all shows up seamlessly. I can import my contacts from Hotmail and Yahoo! It would be great if I could import my Facebook contacts, though.”
He does not plan to make the jump right now.
“Even with all the rumblings on Facebook about the recent changes, I won’t be switching right now because Facebook is where I can find all my friends,” McNally said. “I even sent many of my wedding invitations via Facebook.”
User frustration with Facebook’s changes is prompting them to take a look at a competing platform. The need to create a new contact list on Google+ presents a barrier to switching from Facebook, where users already have connected with friends. The coming weeks will tell whether users will begin a migration to Google+, stay with Facebook, or if the market has room for both to succeed.
Also written by Andrew
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