Google+ Will Overtake Facebook

It's official: Google is the king of the world. Yes, that is correct. Google+, the social network that was too cool for everyone, including a few Twitter-loving celebrities, is now officially on track to become the next Facebook. Wait, you mean you haven't heard the news? You haven't seen the mountains of media headlines touting the fact that Google+ acquired 90 million users in less than one year? Never mind the fact that Google GOOG did so by shoving the network down our throats. Never mind the fact that Google hyped its “+” entity by only allowing a select number of people to sign up at launch. Never mind the fact that Google has a huge brand – and the nation's number-one website – to heavily push the Google+ brand. Never mind the fact that Facebook did not have any of these luxuries when it first debuted. Facebook (and its predecessor, MySpace) had to grow its user base organically. But we should never mind all that! Google said “jump” and the media said, “How high can we jump, Google?” Granted, not everyone is on the Google-rules-all bandwagon. As my colleague Brett Callwood wrote earlier today, “Few people will want to have more than one profile to monitor. LinkedIn LNKD succeeds because it is seen as something else completely – a professional site for business networking. But how many people will want to have a LinkedIn, Facebook AND Google+ profile to sift through?” Callwood's assessment is one of the more sane bits of commentary to follow Google's latest brag announcement. While many critics have made similar comments in the past, most of them came during the initial hyping period for Google+, at which point every blogger was eager to write a negative piece on the dot-com giant. Now it seems as if the pundits have gone silent. Perform a Google search for “Google+ 90 million users” and you will receive a ridiculously large number of results. Most of the results retrieved on the first page are news reiteration pieces that feature quotes from a press release (among other indirect sources). Though a few of them admit that we don't know how many of the 90 million Google+ users actually sign into the social network on a daily basis, none of these stories dive into the actual success and potential of Google+. Since Google won't get specific about the number of people who use the site as a Facebook replacement (or, if nothing else, a Facebook counterpart), it is impossible to accurately proclaim that Google is a champ. And that's exactly what Google intended, because it knows – as we all do – that the Facebook clone is far from a champion. Google didn't make this announcement to provide clear and concise details about its social network. The company did so because it wanted another excuse to remind us that Google+ exists. Google hopes with all its heart that if we are constantly told to use a Facebook alternative, we might actually listen. That could have worked. And in the long-term, it might. But if Google wants to overtake Facebook, it's going to need a groundbreaking feature that completely changes the way we interact and communicate online – OR hope that Facebook stumbles so badly that hundreds of millions of users suddenly pack up and leave. Which scenario do you think is more likely to happen? Take your pick, Google. But don't quit your day job hoping for either scenario to come true. Follow me @LouisBedigian