Both the new media capabilities and the “Timeline” leverage Facebook’s years of work in social networking. Neither feature would be nearly as meaningful if introduced at Google+, because that service has relatively few users, and the users that are there have a no significant history on the service yet. (Google+ was only announced in late June.)

The moves show Facebook playing to its strengths, leveraging its past success, and making a powerful statement that it believes it will take Google years to get its social network to the place that Facebook is at today.

Facebook’s new media capabilities are the more meaningful part of today’s announcements because they extend the concept of the “” to include real-time interaction among users. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained that where you would normally “like” something your friend is watching or listening to, you can now just turn on the same stream and begin watching or listening to the song or video yourself.

For instance, if you see in Facebook’s new Ticker at the right of the screen that one of your close friends is watching a Netflix video or a Spotify music track, you can click on the name of the song or movie and begin listening or watching in real time with your friend.