Could Google Plus Create Its Own ‘Facebook Effect?’

![][1]Facebook can weather strong competition because of the [network effect][2]: the value of a product grows in proportion to the number of people using it.

What keeps people from leaving in favor of, say, Google Plus, is the 130 friends the average [Facebook user][3] has on the site, half of whom log on daily.

Facebook now [tallies more than 800 million users][4], up from around 750 million when Google Plus launched at the beginning of July. That's a growth of 50 million users, more than what the search giant amassed in the same time period.

Like Social Times' Managing Editor Neil Vidyarthi [aptly points out][5], Google Plus hopes to catch people who become disgruntled with Facebook, but the stakes are really high due to the network effect.

He suggests that Facebook would have to make a mistake of epic proportions, such as "a massive [security breach][6] or an accidental data loss."

So far, [nothing][7] has reached the kind of magnitude required to tip the scales in favor of Google Plus.

For instance, this week Facebook users didn't react to the [privacy settlement with the Federal Trade Commission][8] by leaving the site. People shared links to stories about the agreement, and some may have noticed comparisons to [Google's own wrangling with the FT][9]C over the now defunct social media product buzz.

In the meantime, the Google Plus product managers can continue to fret over [which features][10] might improve the emerging social network -- such as more games or document sharing -- but none of it will make a difference without some kind of network effect in play.

Sowing a network effect on Google Plus invokes comparisons with the chicken-and-egg predicament. Good luck with that.

_Image courtesy of [Shutterstock][11]. _

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[1]: http://www.allfacebook.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/chickenandegg.jpg (chickenandegg)
[2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect
[3]: https://www.facebook.com/thefacebookeffect
[4]: https://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics
[5]: http://socialtimes.com/what-can-google-plus-possibly-do-to-make-you-switch-from-facebook_b85809
[6]: http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-warning-2011-11
[7]: http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-botnet-army-2010-02
[8]: http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-ftc-privacy-2011-11
[9]: http://www.allfacebook.com/how-will-googles-ftc-audits-impact-facebook-2011-03
[10]: http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-pages-google-plus-2011-11
[11]: http://www.shutterstock.com
[12]: http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/6zFBMZoywOpNKVq-7B03tJ0kOzY/0/di
[13]: http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/6zFBMZoywOpNKVq-7B03tJ0kOzY/0/da
[14]: http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/6zFBMZoywOpNKVq-7B03tJ0kOzY/1/di
[15]: http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/6zFBMZoywOpNKVq-7B03tJ0kOzY/1/da
[16]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/allfacebook?d=pnQdOprp5To
[17]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/allfacebook?a=6j9gin3sFEg:UYpnM2-loXU:pnQdOprp5To
[18]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/allfacebook?d=qj6IDK7rITs
[19]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/allfacebook?a=6j9gin3sFEg:UYpnM2-loXU:qj6IDK7rITs
[20]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/allfacebook?i=6j9gin3sFEg:UYpnM2-loXU:gIN9vFwOqvQ
[21]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/allfacebook?a=6j9gin3sFEg:UYpnM2-loXU:gIN9vFwOqvQ
[22]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/allfacebook/~4/6j9gin3sFEg

URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/allfacebook/~3/6j9gin3sFEg/facebook-effect-google-plu-2011-12