Since it was first launched last year Google+ has won many fans from users who like the way it works compared to its biggest rival Facebook, and many believe that Google+ could gain on Facebook especially when it comes to social apps.
It has been found from recent surveys that 66 percent of mobile app developers believe Google+ may catch up with Facebook, and according to a report on Computerworld this is being put down to Google’s range of assets. This includes the likes of Android, Gmail, and YouTube that combined together with Google+ provides a powerful network effect.
These findings are from two surveys taken during 2011 and a third more recently in January, with over 2,100 taking part. Those that took part in the surveys were all customers of Appcelerator, who make use of the company’s facilities to create mobile applications.
Currently Facebook has a massive advantage over Google+ with regards to users, with 425 million mobile users along with around 900 million users overall. The authors of the survey noted that it would be expected that Facebook would have more important social strategies, but mobile app developers don’t see it that way with 39 percent of developers believe that Google’s assets are more relevant then “Facebook’s social graph”.
This is a term that refers to the global mapping of users and how they are related, with the latest survey finding that many mobile developers do not properly understand Facebook’s social graph and are finding it hard to integrate it into their applications.
The survey found strong confidence in the future of Google’s social network, but some developers are losing interest in creating applications for Android devices. This is being blamed on the continued fragmentation of the Android platform, and the fact Apple’s iPad continues to outsell all of the Android tablet PCs combined, means that developers can often favour the iOS platform.
Although Android is in second place behind iOS it was found that 89 percent of developers were interested in working on the iPhone, with 88 percent looking to create apps for the iPad. This compares to 79 percent of developers interested in working on apps for the Android phone, and only 66 percent thinking of developing apps for Android tablets.
Do you use Facebook more than Google+?