A few months ago, if I were to be asked what I really thought about Google Plus, I’d say it has all the makings of another Myspace or Friendster. Only this social network iteration never made it to the top of the heap.

But what if I told you that I too had a change of heart. That just as other social media consultant that were changing their tunes on how they project Google Plus’ future would be, I too am dismissing my early predictions. Well, I have, and below I will discuss some of the points that have forced me to come to this different conclusion. To all business owners out there that are still stuck with our early finding that Google Plus was only a fad, hopefully you’ll soon find the light too the same way most of the social media consultants already have.

“Communities” is a feature that went up and above what Facebook’s groups does. Communities allows people to connect to each other through interests, which are searchable. It’s very easy to connect to like-minded people, which if we think about it, is really one of the main mission of social networking. What’s up and above about it though, is that even business pages or brand can join in. A capability missing in Facebook groups. It’s easy to imagine that this innovation is pushed to further give reason to Facebook users who should find this feature neat.

Hangouts is another feature of this social networking site that have yet to be duplicated by its bigger rival. Of course, when I say big, I mean about total user numbers. Google is a much bigger behemoth of a company and I would never make a mistake about that. Video conferencing even up to know is such a premium feature that one has to invest significant dues to get access to. And here comes a social network offering it at no charge! This remains the biggest draw of Google plus for me. Hangouts alone should be enough reason that Google plus is not a fad and that to get More Plus 1 may not be such a waste of time after all.

Finally, let’s not forget how Plus ones are not just mere copycats of Facebook’s “like button”. Plus ones are able to do more for businesses than Facebook likes. They add value to your business website and increasing their likelihood securing a higher ranking on the search engine we are all clamoring for – Google Search. Thus, it never is a loss cause if you invest time in Google plus, these features ensures that.

I could still remember a few years back that the most popular social networking sites to have grabbed our hearts were MySpace and Friendster. Recently, Google has been making a splash and now there are even some who buy Google plus one. It never occurred to me or anyone else I know that there would be a time of downfall for those two prior sites. Google+ is the flagship social networking site from the popular search engine company.

The funny thing about it is that Google doesn’t refer to Google+ as a social networking site; instead it opts to call it a social experiment. Even so, it is getting very clear that they have now taken arms against the social networking threat which is Facebook. There are now even some statements accused by Google co-founder Sergey Brin that Facebook threatens the openness of the internet. He said Facebook’s restrictions are stifling the internet and it goes against the very fundamentals on why they’ve developed a search engine.

“You have to play by their rules, which are really restrictive,” he said. “The kind of environment that we developed Google in, the reason that we were able to develop a search engine is the web was so open. Once you get too many rules that will stifle innovation.”

Above are some of the excerpts from Brin’s interview earlier this month in the guardian. Questions arise that I would want to be answered are ‘should we be glad that Google is now battling Facebook head on?’ ‘Are they merely trying to avoid the same extinction that happened to the two websites we have previously mentioned?’ ‘Do they really have the public’s best interest in mind’?

Google has continued to enjoy web dominance through the years. It is in fact the top web brand for 2011; an achievement it has prevailed in for several years before and now we’re not so sure about in the future is Facebook continues to steamroll the internet. Facebook has posed problems for the search engine giant because it has continued to wall off its content from Google’s search engine.

What better way to resolve this concern than to create a ‘social experiment’ of your own. We are all well aware of the changes Google has implemented to make their products more appealing to internet users. The look and feel of Gmail, Google Calendar and Maps for example has all been revamped. Unless you are living on a spot in the world we are not even familiar to point at, it is safe to say that these changes rolled out because Google is being threatened. From a user’s point of view, competition is always going to be good. We are able to use better service, see better contents and learn much more because of what competition brings.

Google+ and its neat circles are there to provide us with options. Personally I think it look better than anything we have been presented with. That is why people would still buy Google plus one. It is safe to say that we still cannot foresee the collapse of an internet giant.