Twitter vs Google + : We are doing a billion, Well, we are doing 350 billion

We’re doing 1 billion per day. Well, we are doing 350 billion per day. How is that for a repartee. A fledgling social service called Google+ which is Facebook+Twitter done right using the hindsight of course, shared(boasted) a statistic of  1 billion shares a day on its earnings day call. It sure was expecting something in kind from the company that re-invented sharing. Twitter has posted in a tweet that it is delivering 350 billion tweets a day.

In a way which is unique to these tech startups, Twitter has delivered the message via a tweet. Google+ has delivered the message via a share. The social network (Facebook) which goes in between is sharing 4 billion items per day. Facebook has shared its numbers in a meeting where it released an ‘awesome’ feature.

Between Twitter and Google+, they are targeting two separate phenomenon’s altogether. On Twitter the activity happens in the first 20-30 minutes after a tweet goes out. There is no engagement in its true context. One tweet of the 350 billion tweets goes out, it has less than 5 mins to survive or die. More often than not, the tweet almost always dies unless it’s coming from someone popular.

Tweeting is like farting. Once it’s done, it is done. Few people notice it, few take action but beyond that not much else happens.

On the contrary, Google+ shares have real engagement going on. Though annoying, Google made sure that the engagement stays this way with its pesky little red notifications. Having a meaningful conversation on Twitter is an oxymoron. On Google+, anyone can pick up the conversation at any time and it doesn’t feel awkward at all.

TheGadgetFan, has a presence on Twitter and Google+. In addition to these individual presence, tweets and shares go out with individual accounts of Indianomics and Trakin. Unsurprisingly, there are no referrals from Twitter on a Saturday. Google+ has sent quite a bit of traffic our way. There isn’t much of an activity on either Twitter or Google+ but G+ has a unique way of engaging the audience.

Bottom line, billions really doesn’t count if we have to measure engagement. From a software engineering perspective, handling 350 tweets or transactions a day is a mighty impressive feat. Even if they are 140 characters in length.