And in this corner, Google+

Only a few months after its launch in June of this year, Google's new social networking site, Google+, has already managed to pass the 25 million users mark. Although this number appears small when compared the 800 million users currently using major competitor Facebook, the fact that it has reached this many users in the course of less than a year presents Google+ as a rising competitor in the social-networking market.

According to statistics from Search Engine Journal, Google+ has been faster than any other major social networking site at reaching the 25 million user benchmark. The next fastest was Myspace, which took 20 months to reach the same number of users: four times as long as Google+ has taken. If growth continues at this pace, the site could prove a formidable opponent to the currently dominant Facebook.

Potential reasons for the popularity of Google+ include a general discontent with Facebook, superior privacy settings and an appeal to a different audience. AJ Robidas, a Fourth year Computer Science major at Brock University, states an appeal to more technologically inclined users as a major reason why she and her colleagues have switched to the new system, and specifies privacy as one of the reasons why these users are drawn to it.

"In the computer science community, everyone was getting [an account]" Robidas explained. "It's a lot simpler to put friends into different groups and control what they see."

Robidas also stated an improved chat system as one of the major ways in which Google+ has appealed to new users, especially in terms of people who have had issues with Facebook's chat system. The ability of Google+ to facilitate video conference calls, and the generally more organized approach it takes to the chat system were also stated as advantages of the site.

"Facebook chat feeds into your private messages, has been annoying a lot of people. Those two things should be separate, and Google has recognized that," she explained.

Robidas said that the main limitation of Google+ at the moment is its lack of applications as is offered by Facebook, and the corresponding lack of widespread appeal. She instead presents the site as more focused on the niche market of technologically inclined users, rather than a broad audience.

 "It's currently a social networking site for technologically-inclined people […] right now, the people who have switched over to Google+ are Computer Science students, and other groups in that general area. It needs to get generalized for everybody before it will be successful," said Robidas.

The question remains whether Google+ will gain the mainstream appeal it needs in order to become a significant competitor to Facebook. However, if the site continues to grow in users at the same pace as it has been the last several months, it has the potential to become a major threat to Facebook's monopoly over social media.

Google+ has managed to reach a number of users in five months that Facebook took over a year to achieve; this speed of growth is the main factor that has put Google+ in the running as a potential competitor. Ultimately, only time will tell if Google+ will attempt to seriously impose on Facebook's user base, or if it will continue to focus on the niche market it currently has and become an entirely different type of social networking site than Facebook. Robidas summarizes this situation as one that has potential to end up either way.

"It all depends on what Facebook does at this point, and what Google+ does."