So I kind of backed into this story by first posting something about Facebook blocking contact data exports, presumably because they're worried about people departing Facebook in droves for Google Plus, without even talking about what Google Plus is.
Google has tried to do social before with Buzz, but that service fell flat and it looked like Google was going to be handed its first challenge - social - that it wouldn't be able to surmount.
Now, however, they've launched Google Plus, and signs are pointing to another Google success.
This video does a good job of summarizing some of the key facets of Plus:
The concept of creating circles of contacts, each with their own settings, puts some subtlety around social that Facebook doesn't have. Plus also has video chat (both one-on-one and group) out of the gate.
Internet tastemakers are starting to migrate over, and a lot of people are already asking "Are you leaving Facebook?" The site is still only in closed invitation mode but has grown to 10 million users in the space of three weeks. I'm not expecting Facebook to fall apart overnight, but remember when MySpace was the 800 pound gorilla and Facebook the quirky upstart?
