Mobile Payments

The Google+ app for Android devices includes a mobile payment option through Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, which allows users to tap phones together or to a scanner to transmit data, such as credit card information. This technology is already at the heart of Google e-wallet, which the company introduced to a handful of cities in May. Currently, only and phones have access to NFC, but the technology is becoming increasingly common.

The successful integration of NFC into a mobile Google+ would have serious implications for many of the points raised above. For example, a user could not only check into a location using their Google+ profile, but could purchase through it as well, with the purchase tracked and shown to the business owner. In theory, a Google+ user could be tracked from when she clicked on an ad, how much time she spent on the website, when she checked into the store, and what she bought. Google already has proven models for most of these interactions; there's no reason not to tie them together. Again, there's no equivalent potential here for Facebook.

What Else to Watch for

For the past decade, Google has been working on building out the tools users use, rather than the connections among them. Google+ skeptics arguing that the social network has arrived too late are missing the full picture. The ultimate success of the will depend as much on its supportive services--in which Google has an advantage--as it will on its aggregate users. So, while Facebook has expended considerable energy testing how users want to use the central functionalities of a social network, Google has been able to duplicate what's proven to work, test new features, and fold that into a robust suite of functionalities.