I would put things in a different perspective. Its not that Google will win this contest…its that Facebook might (or will) loose it.  Advanced usability features of Google plus will make a difference, but the biggest difference will be made by Facebook’s shortcomings.

Soft Power: Google vs Facebook

Google wields a huge soft-power over its bigger Social Networking rival. Analyzing the sentiments in blogs and comments, it is quite evident that there is a general sense of “enjoyment” or “happiness” in the tech community. It appears that people just want someone to pose a challenge to Facebook’s increasing dominance.

Maybe it is Facebook’s blatant breach of Privacy, its apathy towards developers, its philosophy that users revolt but eventually concede to the changes. Or maybe its Facebook’s open PR attempt to malign Google. Maybe people are just awestruck or a little bit envious by the meteoric rise of Facebook. I can not pin-point exactly what it is that people do not like about Facebook but it is still (and will remain for a long time) the biggest Social Network in the world.

Maybe people did not have a choice..and now that they feel that there might be an alternative to Facebook, they feel overjoyed. Its kindof like the Arab spring where people are joyous that they have an option to get an alternative rather than listen to a dictatorial regime.

Its not that Google is everything good and Facebook is everything evil. Google also breaches on People’s privacy quite openly. But most people do not feel “happy” or “over-joyous” over the success of bing (search engine from Microsoft).

So why are people so happy about Google Plus and not about bing? Difference is Google’s soft-power that has a comforting and soothing effect on people. Something that Facebook and Microsoft do not have in their DNA.

1. Chilean Miners Rescued

This is, undoubtedly, the biggest news of the week.  We were joking earlier when we suggested that you may be living under a rock, but if you didn’t hear about this one you may actually have been under a rock.  You couldn’t open up a news or social site without reading either the real-time number of miners saved, or an emotional account of watching the footage. However, as a marketing blog, we have to touch on this one from a PR point.  If you haven’t already seen the footage of the miners being rescued, one thing you may have missed is that they all were given a pair of Oakley sunglasses to protect their retinas from the sunlight they had been sheltered from for so long. While this was, to some extent, a charitable act, research experts estimated that the exposure the company got in the news was worth $41 Million.  Now that is some good PR.

Photo Credit HuffingtonPost.com

2. Verizon’s New Product Launch

Last week, we talked about the leak that had WSJ and NYT announcing the pending launch of the iPhone for Verizon. Today, we saw an official release from Apple and Verizon announcing the release of a new product move to Verizon… (drum roll please) the iPad!  Alright, we’ll admit it, not quite as exciting as the iPhone, but it is a step in the right direction for Verizon! Should this be taken as further proof that the iPhone is coming to Verizon soon?

3. Facebook Makes New Friends

The recent release of The Social Network has had a lot of different rumors flowing about Mark Zuckerberg’s reaction.  Whatever his reaction was, it is certain that he did not sit around and dwell on the matter.  In the past week, Facebook has developed new relationships with both Skype and Microsoft.  Skype and Facebook are teaming up to connect a user’s Facebook connections to their Skype connections, meaning that a Skype user can use information from Facebook to make quick, direct calls to their friends. Microsoft and Facebook are teaming up to continue down the road of making search social.  Bing began offering personalized search based on Facebook networks yesterday, and is planning to roll out to all users over the next few months.

4. New Serendipit Video

Well, at Serendipit we are always inspired to share the things we learn with our followers.  However, every once in awhile we get especially inspired, and want to make a full presentation out of it.  After attending last month’s Social Media AZ convention (#SMAZ), we got the exact inspiration we needed.  While we couldn’t have possibly crammed in everything we learned, we did compile some key findings (and other research) to create a new video, highlighting a potential digital marketing success plan.  The video can be seen in a recent blog post – please watch, share, and enjoy!

That’s all today! Check back next week for more!