Google+ is Google’s latest attempt at taking on the likes of Facebook and Twitter in the social networking arena – but why do you need another social network?

Like most social networks, Google+ enables you to share content such as status updates, links, photos, video etc. with your contacts – however, where it differs is that you have much more control over who see’s the content you are sharing thanks to Circles.

Circles is at the heart of Google Plus: it is essentially a tool for organising your contacts into different groups – friends, work, family and so on. The key advantage of this is that it enables you to share different updates with different people – unlike Facebook for example, you can separate your personal and professional identities without the need for multiple user accounts. The user interface of the Circles tool makes it incredibly easy to start organising your contacts and the attention Google has paid to the design and interaction produces a very elegant solution to a potentially arduous task.

Facebook has been criticised many times for its lack of privacy controls and Google seems to have taken note. Google+ allows you to very easily select what each contact can and cannot see. Anybody can add your profile to their circles, however – unless you add them to one of yours, they can only see your public posts. Furthermore, you can actually view your own profile from the perspective of a specific contact to check what they can and cannot see.

Other cool features include Sparks (which lets you find the things that interest you and share these with your circles) and Hangouts (a tool which allows you to group video chat your contacts).

A very slick user interface (UI) – incorporating real-time updates to it’s clean design – makes Google+ a ‘nice place to be’. Instantly it appears fresh and clutter-free in comparison to Facebook or LinkedIn. It also comes mobile-ready, with a cool app and web app which make great use of GPS to offer location-based content.

Google+ has huge potential considering its a Google product, however taking on the likes of Facebook and Twitter is something even Google themselves have struggled with in the past (Google Wave, anyone?) A recent poll on The Next Web revealed that two-thirds of early Google+ users we’re already ready to ditch their Facebook accounts in favour of Google Plus.

The social networking site is still very much in it’s infancy so it is very difficult to call whether Google has finally cracked the social networking arena with Google+ but you can bet that Google will be rolling out some great features in the near future. My own evaluation is that Google has potentially cracked it this time – the slick interface and the attention to users controlling what other users can see make it a strong proposition. For many, Facebook has become tired – full of irrelevant and seemingly pointless updates. Google+ addresses this effectively with Circles and the ability to keep professional and personal identities separate – that alone will make many sit up and take notice.

From an end–user’s perspective – the attraction in social networking is clear. As the web has matured, its users have grown to expect a more interactive experience. Long–gone are the days of Static HTML web pages where an ‘Animated GIF’ or two was about as exciting as it got! The modern web user expects to be able to interact with a website and other users of that websites – hence the rise in popularity of social networking.

Social Networks not only offer the end–user an ever–changing community to which they belong but the interaction with other people that the human nature strives for.

The web community isn’t a new concept, from the beginnings of the rise in web popularity there were chat rooms, discussion boards and forums – all of which were bustling with loyal followers and we’re in effect mini communities to which the modern social networks partly owe their existence to.

So what about the developers? The multi–millionaires behind the popular social networks. How did they make their millions?

Evolution
The common theme in the rise of many social networks is that they started with a specific goal – but evolved to be something else. While the developers aided this evolution, the change was largely natural. As in the definition of ‘community’, it is very hard to manufacture this – but you can lay the foundations.

By developing the tools that allow users to interact with one another, contribute to the website and ultimately form a community – you are laying the foundations of a successful social network.

Patience and Determination
Facebook is now the UK’s most popular social network and lays claim to over 200 million active users worldwide. Facebook was founded by four students in 2004, who wanted to create a network for fellow students at their university. The potential was quickly spotted and Facebook received investments totaling over US$41 million – however at the end of 2005 it still had a net loss of US$3.63 millon. Jump forward to 2009 and Facebook has over 700 staff worldwide and an estimated revenue of US$300 million.

The message is clear – investment, solid development & planning, patience and determination are key. Facebook didn’t gain 200 million users overnight. However, knowing the potential the platform had they spent their money on developing the tools to help the social network grow organically. When you have 200 million world–wide users, finding advertising revenue to pay for that development suddenly becomes much easier!

Commercial Potential
The commercial potential of social networks is relatively simple. The social network has a target user group – whether it be music (MySpace), students (Facebook) or business people (LinkedIn). These user groups are all prime targets for advertisers. Advertisers are further aided in that the nature of social networking encourages users to divulge in their interests – thus making it easier for the advertisers to collect information about these users fine–tune their targeted advertisements (behavioral targeting).

MySpace was arguably the first major social network to gain mainstream popularity in this country. Originally started as a place for unsigned bands to promote their music – MySpace quickly evolved first into a community of music lovers and then general internet users – and was subsequently snapped up by Fox Interactive Media for $580 million in July 2005. Fox saw the advertising potential in MySpace and the company relies totally on advertising revenue (i.e there are no ‘paid for’ features on the website).

“I still want to develop a social network”
If you have a strong concept and a well-developed plan for your social network, and you are prepared to invest your time, money and patience – then we can help turn your idea into reality…

As the development team behind Champions365.com we’ve seen it go from strength to strength under our development team, attracting sports fans, investors and advertisors alike since it’s intial launch in August 2008. The Champions365.com features the latest Sports News, Fixtures and Results, Blogging Facilities, Media Sharing (such as Video) in addition to common social network tools such as Messaging, Linking Friends and Sharing Content.