????在上周三舉行的發布會上，Facebook推出了三款產品：群組通訊功能、一個全尺寸的好友名單設計、以及視頻聊天。盡管這三個新特性均頗受歡迎，但過去幾周內引發了大量傳聞的卻是其視頻聊天服務。新鮮出爐的Facebook視頻聊天在各方面都不負眾望：易下載、易用、能提供一流的視頻質量。

????好吧，幾乎各方面都不負重望。

????但是，Facebook缺少屬于自己的組視頻聊天特性。雖然這本身聽起來倒不是什么大事，但如果你在Google +注冊，并且把玩一下“來此一聚”（Hangout）視頻聊天功能，你就會明白，谷歌開發的這項功能實在是太有用了。

????我月初才從紐約市搬到舊金山。我希望，自己能跟朋友們同時使用同一種服務以保持聯系。事實說明，Hangout就能滿足我的這一愿望。我們總共5個人，進行了一次為時45分鐘的群組視頻聊天。整個過程并非完美無缺：我被迫重啟瀏覽器一次，還有個朋友中途從此服務中掉線。（我認為那是因為她的帶寬太小所致。）但是，畫面質量和聲音都非常出色，我們也得以順利完成自由流暢的對話。

????Hangout功能給我帶來了非常難忘的使用體驗，而且事實表明，在Google+推出后的廖廖數日中，它已成為Google+最佳的幾大功能之一。上周三Facebook自己的視頻聊天服務推出之后，“Hangout”的性能進一步得到了凸顯。

????這幾年，谷歌亦曾嘗試過Google Wave和Google Buzz等社交服務，但二者均以失敗告終。最終，人們甚至開始質疑谷歌是否具備開發“社交”應用的潛質。

????“我曾聽人說我們根本不擅長廣告業務。”谷歌廣告高級副總裁蘇珊?沃杰西奇今年早些時候曾表示。“這可不屬實。或者有人說我們沒有做展示廣告的細胞，這也純屬胡說八道。互聯網市場發展如此迅速，所有公司都必須不斷學習，迅速適應，我們一定能夠做到這一點。”

????就在不到兩周前，谷歌做出了更為斬釘截鐵的回答，那就是Google +。現在，由于谷歌已經停止提供測試邀請，因此很多潛在用戶仍不能使用該網絡；但是，Google +能提供優于Facebook的好友管理工具，前景一片光明。歷經艱辛之后，谷歌認識到，自己根本無法開發出能與Facebook比肩的社交應用。但是，Hangout確實強于Facebook。頭一回，谷歌憑借其問世僅僅兩周的社交網絡，實實在在地擁有了Facebook所不具備的重要特性。

????當然，現在就斷言Google+是否會大獲成功還為時尚早。但是，TechCrunch等科技網站紛紛指出，該社交網絡已開始向世人證明，這是個了不起的流量擴充源。現在的問題是，Google+吸引的是否不僅僅是科技迷。一旦谷歌放開禁限，任何想一試身手的人都能隨意加入Google+。到時該社交平臺是否經得起考驗，便能見分曉了。

????從短期來看，谷歌的這一最新成就不會對Facebook產生什么影響。社交網絡巨人最近終于確認，目前它已擁有7.5億用戶；其中多數用戶很可能會在未來幾周乃至幾個月內，試用它剛剛推出的視頻聊天特性。而且，我敢打賭，不管Facebook獨自進行還是與Skype等合作伙伴共同開發，視頻群聊等新功能也肯定已在研發過程中。

????谷歌除了開發一些雖頗具創意但毫無價值的小玩意，到底是否具備社交領域的創新能力？從今往后，這個一直籠罩在谷歌頭上的疑問，應該可以壽終正寢了。幾年來，社交媒體領域頭一回開始了雙龍爭霸的局面。

????譯者：大海

????At Facebook's launch event Wednesday, the social network unveiled three products, including group messaging, a new full-sized buddy list design and video chat. While all are welcome additions, it was that last feature that fueled rumors for weeks. Now that it's here, Facebook's video chat is everything it ought to be: easy-to-download and easy-to-use, with some pretty stellar video quality.

????Well, almost.

????The omission of group video chat in and of itself probably doesn't sound like a big deal, but if you've signed up for Google + and palled around via "Hangout" video chat, you know the Mountain View-based company has actually created something incredibly useful.

????Having just moved from New York City to San Francisco last week, I wanted a service my friends and I could all use simultaneously to stay in touch. That product turned out to be Hangout. With five people in tow, we held a 45-minute group video catch-up session. The experience wasn't perfect: I had to restart my browser once, and one of my friends got kicked off. (I blame her low bandwidth connection.) But the picture quality and sound was good, certainly good enough to hold a free-flowing conversation.

????Hangout is already impressive and has proven to be among Google+'s best features during its extremely short existence. It looks even more impressive after Facebook's own video chat announcement today.

????For years, Google has tried its hand at social with services like Google Wave or more recently, Google Buzz, neither of which took off. Eventually, people began to doubt whether "social" was in even in Google's DNA.

????"I've heard that advertising is not in our DNA," Susan Wojcicki, Google's Senior VP of advertising said earlier this year. "That was not true. Or that display advertising is not in our DNA. That is not true either. This is such a fast moving market that every company has to be able to learn quickly and adapt, and we will."

????A more definitive answer came less than two weeks ago with Google +, a network many potential users still can't get on -- the company has stopped extending Beta invites at the moment -- but already offers promise with better friend management tools than Facebook itself. Google (GOOG) found the hard way it can't just create social apps comparable to Facebook's. But Hangout actually one-ups Facebook. For once, Google, with its two-week-old social network, actually has something that Facebook doesn't.

????Of course, it's too early to tell whether Google+ will really take off, though tech sites like TechCrunch point out that the social network is already proving to be a big traffic-referral source. The question now is whether Google+ will appeal to more than tech geeks. Once Google opens up the floodgates and lets in everyone who wants to join, we'll have a better idea of whether the social platform has legs.

????Google's latest accomplishments will likely have little effect on Facebook in the short term. The social network goliath finally confirmed it has 750 million users, a good chunk of whom will probably try that new native video chat feature in the weeks and months to come. And you can also bet new features like group video chat are already in the works, whether it's in-house or with partners like Skype.

????But after today, the question that has long dogged Google -- whether it can innovate in the social space and not just develop creative duds -- should be put to rest. For the first time in a while, social media is a two-horse race.