5 Things Google+ Needs to Learn from Facebook

I recently wrote how Google+ did a few things better than Facebook. In that post I promised to also visit the other side of the argument and find 5 things Facebook did better than Google+. Facebook might not have the best UI or still might not get their messaging service spot on, it does manage to keep people addicted.

#1. The Novelty of Facebook

Facebook has a certain novelty. When it was created, it was meant only for campus students from the U.S. It outgrew that phase and created some simple features like wall updates, relationship statuses and most importantly the ‘Like’ button.

All these things we associate with Facebook and not any other social network simply because of its novelty. Google+ has to find it’s own sense of novelty rather than mirror all the features from competitors.

#2. Facebook Groups

Google+ simply lacks the ability to give users the chance of creating interest groups. I am part of a couple of book reading groups on Facebook and they are extremely useful. It gives the feeling of being in a smaller network within a network.

I am surprised the Google+ does not have a similar feature on it. It does have excellent service called Google Groups and it would be a wise idea to allow some of these Google Group features being merged into Google+. At the end of the day, Google+ users still do not have any options to create their personal small groups within the bit network.

#3. Facebook Comments

I see many blogs allowing users the ability to comment using their Facebook credentials. Google+ only has +1 buttons which can be used on 3rd party websites. I think it would be a great idea to allow people to comment on a blog using Google+.

Facebook Comments is often used to increase the interactivity of a website with readers. Also it is less likely that people leave hate or spam comments with their Facebook IDs.

#4. Facebook API

I am not a developer and hence I won’t be able to write at length about why Google+ taking so much time over releasing its API.  Google+ is now over 6 months old and with lack of API available, there is a real chance that 3rd party developers might simply have lost interest in creating great apps for it.

#5. Facebook is not serious

I am not suggesting Facebook is not serious about itself as a company. But it seems to not take its role on the internet all that seriously, which is actually the truth. It is a great way to  efficiently waste time. When Facebook messed up on privacy, people might have felt outraged but they did not leave the website. The reason was social networks are not that important or critical to people’s lives like say online maps, email or search engines. Facebook gets this part but I doubt Google+ does.

What do your views on Google+ and Facebook? Do drop in your comments.