Google+ has the potential to claw back market share from Facebook, according to recent surveys of mobile app developers.
Research from Appcelerator and IDC showed that Google’s integration of search, Gmail, YouTube and Android create a “powerful” network effect when combined with Google+.
Two surveys conducted in 2011, along with third in January 2012, asked 2,100 Appcelerator customers about Google+’s rise and found that that 39 per cent claim Google’s assets “are more important to them than Facebook’s social graph”, cites Computer World.
Many of Google’s integrated assets, such as search and location, are important to online and search marketing professionals so it should come as no surprise that Google’s integration of features come as a positive to developers.
Mike King, Appcelerator’s principal mobile strategist, added to adotas.com that Google’s interaction with designers was also a plus for the firm, while Facebook just puts ”a bunch of stuff on a page and says, ‘Have fun with it’.”
Overall, the authors of the report concluded: “It might be expected that Facebook would be vastly more important to social strategies [for mobile developers] than Google.
“However, mobile app developers see the world differently, with potentially significant impacts to how social plays out in the mobile space, especially for the next billion social users.”
