The battle of the Social networks.

http://www.econtentmag.com/Articles/News/News-Feature/Google--vs.-Facebook-Social-Networking-in-2012-79111.htm

This article highlights another avenue that the recent BBC Facebook documentary looked at, the battle to be top of the social networks moving in to 2012. Danielle Monroe believes that Facebook's latest feature, the constantly changing time line could drive users away. She writes 'That is, if users enjoy them. A survey of 2,000 teens aged 14-17 conducted by Mr. Youth, a digital advertising firm in New York, found that 45% of teens think the new features make Facebook's homepage overwhelming and distracting. Thirty-one percent of teens say they try to ignore the time line, which makes them feel like stalkers, and 25% say they plan to move to Google+ to escape f8's cluttered platform.' The over complicated user tools that Facebook is introducing along with the constant barrage of advertising from companies could drive users away like the same reason did on Myspace. "This is an audience that is kind of like the canary in the coalmine," says Nick Fuller, senior director of marketing at Mr. Youth. "If there are any warning signs, this generation is going to notice right away and they're going to leave the fastest."


Google + Monroe believes 'Has the potential to change the way we think about social media' They aim to modernise social networking making it an experience where brands with the most amount of followers come up first. This technique would give brands unparallelled information as to what users want from them. However is Google + losing sight of what made Facebook so popular in the first place, putting the users enjoyment and accessibility first and profit second. "The requirement to make money might supersede the user's experience." argues David Catalano, president and co-founder of Modea Corp, a digital advertisement agency in Virginia.


The mission to overtake giant of the social networking world Facebook is certainly going to be a challenging one, but as what users want from the Internet sharing world evolves perhaps it is an inevitable one too.