Google+โs purchase of the popular Snapseed photo editing application heraldโs a concerted effort to compete head on with its social networking rival, Facebook. At stake are the millions of social networkers who are utilizing Appleโs mobile devices to access its popular free photo editing app, Instagram. Googleโs acquisition of Snapseed, which can be purchased for less than 5 dollars, signals their desire to capture a greater share of mobile device-toting owners who are integrating photo editing capabilities into their social networking experience.
Photographers are increasingly employing their mobile devices as cameras and on-line photo editing apps are growing in popularity. Up until now, Instagram has enjoyed the lionโs share of mobile app photographers by offering the award winning photo editing software for free on Appleโs mobile devices. Google+ has some catching up to with Instagramโs current 100 million users.
Purchased earlier this year for a whopping 1 billion dollars, Facebook wasted no time in making application improvements on Instagram. It added special filters and special effects to enhance the photo editing experience on smart phones. No stranger to accolades, Snapseed was recognized by Apple as the winner of its โIpad App of the Yearโ Award in 2011 for its multi-touch photo editing interface.
While still the underdog in the battle of social networking dominance against Facebook, Google + has proven to be a worthy opponent. It’s been reported that Google + has crossed a major hurdle having recently achieved over 400 million users and 100 million monthly active users. This compares to Facebookโs 955 million monthly active users and an average of 552 million daily log- in’s. Yet, just celebrating its 1st birthday, Google+โs growth is impressive, to say the least.
