Which is better : Facebook or Google+ ?

SALT LAKE CITY -- Over the years, Google+ will likely go through a lot of changes, just like Facebook has. But if we are to compare the two sites as they are now, which one seems better? That depends on which features you want to focus on.

Finding Friends

In the span of roughly one month, Google+ has gathered and estimated 18 million users. This is a very impressive number, but it pales in comparison to Facebook's membership of roughly 750 million active users. So, considering how many more people are using Facebook, it's almost unfair to compare these two sites on how easy it is to find friends.

But there are other things to consider besides numbers.

"I'm On Facebook, Now What?" co-author Jesse Stay says Google+ is very good at suggesting friends for you, but there's a caveat.

"Those will be pretty accurate, assuming that you have friends on Google+. If you don't have any friends that are on Google+, it's going to be not as good of an experience for you," he said.

On Facebook, once you add information about your work and your schooling, it will show a list of people who might work with the same company or who may have gone to school with you. As I checked the list of friends Google+ was suggesting for me, it seemed like the list was mostly based on my friends' friend list.

"If your close friends and family aren't on Google+, then it may not make sense to get on there," Stay said.

The winner: Facebook

Functionality for Business

Again, this isn't a fair comparison right now. Stay says Google+ isn't allowing businesses to make pages for their company, yet. They will soon, though. But Facebook seems to have a more personal feel to it, which Stay says businesses like better. This stems from the way Google+ uses a system it calls "circles," instead of the "friends list" on Facebook.

"When you ‘circle' them, it's a one-way relationship. I can ‘circle' you and follow your updates. But, you don't have to ‘circle' me and follow me back," Stay explained.

Stay says that's not the only reason businesses prefer Facebook.

"Facebook has an API, which is an interface for programmers to write applications for Facebook. Google+ doesn't have that," he said.

The winner: Facebook.

Integration with Other Software

Stay says this one is no contest. Google+ is far better at integrating all of its other programs, like Gmail, Documents and Calendar. Plus, it allows you to find out more about things that spark your interest, which it calls "sparks." For instance, if you list "BYU football" as one of your sparks, Google's search engine will find the latest news and information about the Cougars.

The Winner: Google+

Security Settings

Changing your privacy settings on Facebook isn't hard to do, but Google+ seems to be a little more "in your face" about it. Stay says, every time you post something on Google+, it will ask you who you want to allow to see that post. With Facebook, once you arrange your privacy settings, it won't ask you if you want your comments, pictures and links to be seen by everyone or just certain people. Stay says this may force some users to go through a learning curve, but others believe it's a very simple process.

The Winner: Google+

There are other things on Google+ that Stay says are really cool. For example, it has created a new kind of chat capability, which it calls "hangouts." This lets up to 10 people at a time join in a video conference and share YouTube videos while chatting.

As many people compare the features between the two sites, Stay thinks Google+ is more a threat to Twitter than it is to Facebook. Google+ lets users do pretty much everything Twitter does, and then some. Also, it doesn't force people to shorten their messages to 140 characters or less.

E-mail: pnelson@ksl.com

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