I’ve been on Google+ for all of three days but my initial impressions are pretty good. Although I’ve only scratched the surface of what Google+ offers and there are lots of cards that Google has yet to show, Google+ has an excellent shot to become the badly-needed rival to Facebook.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting Google+ will be a Facebook-killer but the social networking world desperately needs another player to keep Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook honest. After MySpace imploded within the bosom of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., Facebook could do anything they wanted because there’s nowhere else to go. For all the complaints about Facebook’s cavalier attitude to privacy, for example, it didn’t matter because users had no other choices.

I’m excited about Google+’s potential because it not only offers many of the features that social media users want but it has some interesting features that make it different and better than Facebook. Here’s a short list of what’s good about Google+:

1. The ability to create different circles based on your personal and professional interests is great because it lets you splice and dice your digital presence just like you do in real-life. This means you can leverage social media to connect with different groups of people on the same platform rather than throw them all into the same bucket like you do with Facebook.

2. In Google+, you control the data. I’m sure Google will leverage it somehow as part of the deal but the company says that if you leave, your data comes with you. And they’ll make it easy to delete your account. Facebook, on the other hand, believes it owns or, at least, control all data. And leaving Facebook is not an easy process.

3. As Google+ evolves, the integration with other Google services will make Google+ a more valuable and multi-faceted service to share content and provide updates to different circles.

I don’t expect Google+ to cause major damage to Facebook in the short-term but Google+ has the potential to become a strong rival to Facebook within the social networking market, which should be cause for celebration for anyone who has misgivings about Mark Zuckerberg’s hubris or bold ambitions.

At the very least, Google+ should keep Facebook on its toes and force it to change how it operates, which is the great thing about real competition.

Links:
- Robert Scoble who believes Google+ will become the social network for geeks, early adopters and social media gurus.
- All Facebook on the one Google+ feature that Facebook should fear – the integration with other Google services.
- Nine Reasons to Switch to Google+ (PC World)
- Fred Wilson on the fact he’s rooting for Google+ to expand the social media landscape and provide more choices