Google+ is expanding rapidly and is set to beat Facebook by 2016 - Batman the Dark Knight Rises as the new Social Network King

I knew this would eventually happen, but at least it’s happening sooner than later. Google+ is on the move, thanks mainly to their unethical strategy of favouring searches for posts on their Social Network through their OWN Google Search Engine as I’d predicted in my blog article entitled “Facebook extinct as Chrome to be No. 1 Browser in 2012AD – FB rides Bed Knobs and Broomsticks Mobile Revolution against Google+”.

So much so that I’ve decided to give Google+ a chance and begin officially posting articles for my personal blogs My Thoughts on Technology and Jamaica, Jamaican Downloads and Kelroy’s blog for which I’m an associate Editor, the award-winning Geezam blog. This is of course strictly business as if I’m successful, it’ll mean revenue for me in the future in the way of advertising, endorsements, sponsored articles and even books!

I’ve integrated a Like Box and a Comment Box for Google+ and I’ll soon be adding the Facebook Like Box and Comment Box all in a bid to increase traffic and thus seek sponsorship as stated in my blog article entitled “How to integrate a Facebook and Google+ Comment Box in Blogger to increase Blog Traffic - Managing your Google+, Facebook and Blogger Profiles”.

Not bad for a Social Network that started in July 2011, some two (2) years ago as chronicled in my blog article entitled “Google +1 and their Social Networks Machinations - If Tomorrow Comes”. Then again Google purchased Android OS for smartphones and it wasn’t until smartphones became popular during the Summer of 2010 that their phenomenal global rise began as recorded faithfully in my blog article entitled “The 4G Revolution and the Summer of 2010”.

Google Android has now arisen to the point where now even Jamaicans are going Coco puffs over smartphones, mainly Millennials (ages 18 to 28) despite Jamaicans being a pragmatic lot who only buy cheap Nokia phones that are unbreakable. This rise in smartphones is mainly thanks to the increasing popularity of Apple iPhones and Samsung Galaxy smartphones as surmised in my blog article entitled “Blackberry popularity wanes as Jamaicans go smartphones - Android and Apple's Smartphone Revolution” and my Geezam blog article entitled “Apple iPhone boosts Jamaican smartphone usage as BB goes Chapter 11 Bankruptcy”.

Google has now reached the point where they are now with Google Android 4.4 aka KitKat as noted in my Geezam blog article entitled “Google Android 4.4 is now KitKat as Nestle-Google Secret Deal makes Android the first Product Placement OS”

Google+ is in yhe No. 2 position - Active Users are on the Rise

According to web analytics firm GlobalWebIndex Google+, which has some 500 million registered users, is now up to some 343 million to 345 million active users since December 2012 as stated in the article “Report: Google+ Bigger than Twitter with 359 Million Active Users”, published May 2, 2013 by Matt Clark, IGN News. Google+ has been growing at a rate of 33% per annum since the summer of 2012 and they’re only just getting started.

This makes them the No. 2 Social Network behind Facebook surpassing Twitter and even the wildly popular YouTube, albeit Youtube, also owned by Google, is still more popular than Television based on my analysis in my blog article entitled “YouTube's now clocking 1 billion Unique visitors per month - How to see who's watching YouTube Videos as they go Star Trek Into the Darkness in VOD Territory”! The graph below clearly illustrates this:

By comparison, Facebook at their recent Earning Call for the second Quarter of 2013 indicated that they have 1.15 billion active users and 819 million active mobile as stated in the article “Facebook’s Q2: Monthly Users Up 21% YOY To 1.15B, Dailies Up 27% To 699M, Mobile Monthlies Up 51% To 819M”, published Wednesday, July 24th, 2013 by Josh Constine, TechCrunch. Worthy of a separate article by itself as clearly compared to the Second Quarter of 2012, Facebook is also growing……and Google+ is using their unfair advantage to make up ground rather quickly!

Google+ gaining traction in Sharing – Sharing is Caring Snapchat Mission Impossible

Google+ has also cracked yet another of Facebook’s nuts in the field of sharing. They’ve surpassed Facebooks sharing rate of 350 million photos per day based on the Internet.org White Paper as stated in “Facebook reveals we upload a whopping 350 million photos to the network daily”, published September 18, 2013 By Jam Kotenko, Digitaltrends.

That’s almost as much photos shares as Snapchat, which Snapchat’s co-founder Evan Spiegel at TechDisrupt on Monday September 9^th 2013 claimed their self-exploding picture sharing smartphone based Social Network had achieved as stated in my blog article entitled “Snapchat now racks up 350 million shares of self-deleting snaps per day - Milennial Girl’s Litmus Test for Friends and future boyfriends”.

Statistics coming from statistical analyst Searchmetrics estimate that by May 2016:

1.      1,096 billion +1s per month will be generated by Google+

2.      849 billion shares per month will be generated by Facebook

Google+ shares are currently growing at a rate of 19% per annum, compared to 10% by Facebook. Clearly even on the sharing front, Google is also experiencing serious growth that threatens Facebook's Social Network Dominance.

 Google+ and Social Logins – The Basis of increased Web Traffic

Google+ also has the most Social Logins according to analyst Janrain as stated in “Google+ continues to dominate LinkedIn & Twitter, could catch up to Facebook”, published July 8, 2013 10:16 PM by Dylan Tweney, VentureBeat. They are also No. 2 in terms of Social Logins, a trend where someone on a Social Network will use their Social Networking Credentials to log into another website e.g. Bit.ly and Adf.ly, for which I currently use Facebook to login but for Yahoo News comments I use Yahoo.

According to Janrain, the Social Login Metrics make for some interesting reading:

1.      46% use Facebook

2.      34% use Google+

3.      7% use Yahoo

4.      6% use Twitter

The graph below illustrates this beautifully:

According to Janrain, Google+ is growing rapidly in terms of Social Logins. This says a lot, as it’s an indication of the level of connectedness someone has to their Social Network when they begin to use that Network as credentials to access another online service. If Google+ is on the rise, could this mean that web surfers like to use Google+ more as its Social Credentials are more readily acceptable due to their heft as a Social Network?

Google’s Network is huge – Google+ helps us Like it all

So now you can see why I made my decision to integrate BOTH Facebook and Google+ into my blogs for which I write article, My Thoughts on Technology and Jamaica, Jamaican Downloads and Kelroy’s blog for which I’m an Associate Editor, the award-winning Geezam blog. Google+ is growing. So too is Facebook. But by 2016, that dynamic may soon change as Goggle+ has an unfair advantage.

After all, how do you beat a company that’s got so many different interconnected services threaded through its Social Network, searchable by the No. 1 Search Engine on the planet and boasting the soon-to-be crowned No. 1 Browser, Google Chrome as argued in my Geezam blog article entitled “Chrome 16 beats Firefox and IE8 –Mozilla going Mobile and Cloud OS on Smartphones, Tablets and UltraBoooks”?

Facebook will have to come up with a better Mobile Strategy as I’d argued in my blog article entitled “Facebook OS on a smartphone dubbed HTC First to debut on Thursday April 4th 2013 - Tyler Perry’s Temptation of Mobile Computing on Tablets and Smartphones is too hard to ignore”:

1.      Make a Mobile OS i.e. Facebook OS as strongly suggested in my blog article entitled “Apple deeply integrating Facebook into iOS 6.0 - The Penguins of Madagascar Microsoft and Apple save the Devil in the Blue Dress”

2.      Design their own hardware, be it a smartphone or Tablet

3.      Work with Microsoft t integrate Facebook into their products

4.      Improve their partner Microsoft’s IE (Internet Explorer) 11 Browser integration of Facebook

5.      Develope their Apps and Gaming portfolio as was reported in my blog article entitled “FaceBook Credits and Online Gaming - The Pied Pipe's Revenge in the Age of Empire”

Clearly Facebook has a lot of work to do as they transition away from being a Desktop based Social Network and embrace the Mobile Computing Revolution. But for now Google is a safe bet for the future expansion of my blogs for which I write articles, that being My Thoughts on Technology and Jamaica, Jamaican Downloads and Kelroy’s Geezam blog……as Winter is Coming!