In user satisfaction at least
Yes, we know we made quite a few Google+ puns when it launched. We said that it would probably fail and that we would see tumbleweed rolling through its circles like in a bad spaghetti western.
Well, now we are not that sure. Facebook’s image has been tarnished by the controversial IPO and a number of technical cock-ups. Meanwhile Google quietly went about the business of polishing its social network, culminating in an unprecedented level of Google+ integration in Android 4.1.
According to the latest American Consumer Satisfaction Index, Google+ managed to wipe the floor with Facebook. Google+ scored 78 on a 100-point scale, putting it on par with Wikipedia. Facebook scored just 61, a 7.6 percent drop since last year.
So what allowed Google+ to get such good scores in less than a year on market? Research outfit ForeSee believes Google’s social network hits all the notes that Facebook misses. Unlike Facebook, Google+ does not have traditional advertizing and it places an emphasis on privacy.
"Facebook and Google+ are competing on two critical fronts: customer experience and market penetration. Google+ handily wins the former, and Facebook handily wins the latter, for now," said ForeSee CEO Larry Freed.
However, some figures in the same survey have us concerned. For example, FoxNews.com ranked as the top news site, with a user satisfaction index of 84.
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Peter Scott
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