Friday, July 15, 2011

Coke or Pepsi ?


As if the world of social networks wasn't already set on its ear by the introduction of Google Plus, we learn today that Microsoft may be planning to introduce something called Socl.com. Apparently, due to some unfortunate "accident" the welcome screen for this new service was posted here. It was immediately all the rage in Google Plus threads and other communities. Will Socl be the Facebook killer? Will it stifle the rapid growth of Google Plus? Who will be the ultimate social network king? 

A quick search of this topic will already return hundreds of thousands of hits. All the popular blogger and news services have published stories full of facts and figures and opinions on who is going to win the social network wars. Google Plus has topped 10 million subscribers. Microsoft has hundreds of millions of Hotmail, Skype and other service customers. FB is still the undisputed, all time champ with 750 million plus.

Who cares. 

Use the social network you like and feel most comfortable with. If it doesn't do everything you want, try one of the others. They will all have strengths and weaknesses, and they will probably all continue to exist. There are now numerous add ons and add ins to allow Google Plus users to automatically post to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. The other services will eventually return the favor. Already the Plus 1 button is appearing everywhere. More interoperability is, no doubt, on the way.

I certainly won't lose any sleep over which one social network will rule them all. The real danger is I may never sleep again trying to keep up with the posts on all of them. 

Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

3 comments:

  1. Typical Microsoft, as with the Internet and Mobile, they've come in a day late - will they continue their track record of being a dollar short?

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  2. Thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts - I posted a reply here, as you requested: http://community.forrester.com/thread/5127?tstart=0 .

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  3. Zach: As a noted Forrester analyst, I appreciate and respect your opinion. Thank you for your response.

    In my view, there is still room for new social networks, and like the cable networks, they will stretch the landscape, appeal to different segments of the population and no one will dominate them all.

    Facebook will continue to be the "fun" place where people share pictures of their vacation and play games. Google Plus is likely to cater to more professional communities but not to the exclusion of LinkedIn which will maintain its niche as the go to site for employer/employee search.

    Others such as Twitter, Foursquare, Groupon, and even Yelp will thrive as long as they continue to provide interesting and unique capabilities.

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