More and more I contemplate the future of Facebook as I become increasingly frustrated with Mark Zuckerberg’s devil-may-care approach to running his business. From a personal standpoint it’s been a painful ride watching our privacy erode with virtually no apology and no affirmation that we can control our reputations on facebook. From a business standpoint, the medium is becoming increasingly difficult for businesses to leverage for a variety of reasons that I won’t dive into here (that’s another article in itself). But on the dawn of the Facebook IPO, perhaps it’s no surprise that “Big-G” has launched their own social networking site called Google+.

The first indication that perhaps Google has been listening to the vocal majority of disgruntled Facebook users like myself is the explanation of their concept of ‘Circles’ which reads, “You share different things with different people. So sharing the right stuff with the right people shouldn’t be a hassle. Circles makes it easy to put your friends from Saturday night in one circle, your parents in another, and your boss in a circle by himself – just like real life.”

Ahhhhh, sounds comforting, doesn’t it?

Many other features are similar to Facebook, but I think the approach overall is geared toward privacy and connecting people on a deeper level. Other features include smart phone compatibility that allows you to chat with multiple people simultaneously. Google+ also provides a forum for sharing common interests by streaming news and related info into your dashboard and connecting you with others who share the same passions.

In total, I’m excited to see a real competitor enter the market raising the bar so to speak. For the time being, Google+ is available only to those lucky enough to have been invited. In the mean time, check out the features and sign up for the waiting list: http://www.google.com/intl/en/+/demo/