In just a few short weeks, Google+, a new social network from the company that gave us the world’s most popular and profitable search engine, has signed up over 10 million members. While it remains to be seen whether Google+ will prove an enduring success, it has already demonstrated that Facebook, with over 750 million members, is not infallibly destined to dominate the social-networking landscape.
Though Google+ and Facebook appear similar on the surface, they are built around different animating principles. Google’s mission is often described as organizing the world’s information. That sounds like a noble enterprise in itself, but of course Google seeks to organize the world’s information so that it can place relevant advertisements next to that information. Google’s fate is thus tied to the fate of the wider Web. The more information that is accessible via the Web, the better it is for the search engine that helps you find it, which is part of why Google has controversially sought to digitize all books ever published. Facebook, in contrast, aims to build a large and flourishing “walled garden” that exists apart from the wider Web.
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