50 Percent Will Abandon Facebook for Google+, Poll Finds

As Google+'s numbers climb to an estimated 18 million users, PCMag asked readers: will you ditch Facebook for Google+?

As of publication time, a total of 6,237 readers have weighed in, overwhelmingly in favor of Google+. Half of the respondents (50 percent or 3,091 people) said they like Google+ and they plan to leave Facebook. The second most popular response came from 21 percent of voters (1,303 people) who said they're undecided, considering how new Google+ is. There's still 12 percent (733 people) of readers who said they haven't been unable to join G+ yet. The idea of social networking as a whole was rejected by 11 percent (682 people) who said they're against the whole concept. Only 7 percent (428 people) said Facebook is irreplaceable and they're sticking with it.

Despite the poll's response, it's highly unlikely there will be such a significant exodus from Facebook. Facebook boasts a membership of 750 million people—375 million people just aren't going to quit the number one social network. But the results of this informal poll point to a bigger issue: people are increasingly annoyed with Facebook.

"There is no reason to stay on horrible Facebook, period," user tlwinslow wrote. "It's the ZuckerBeast, an enemy of everyone's personal privacy, and must go, it really must go. More power to Google for providing a saner alternative."

Commenter Stephanie Daughterty also expressed some Facebook-induced frustration: "Seriously, Facebook was already on my bad side," wrote. "One word: appspam. If the only way there is for me to cut off all the FrontierVille and CityVille and all those other things that are clogging up my wall is to turn off all apps, it's a flawed model—the same flawed formula that made MySpace into the laughing stock of the social networking world."

Others argued that Google+ won't be worthwhile until more people join.

"Personally, I'll actually start using [Google+] once I see an influx of friends using it," reader Travis Brown wrote. "After all, that's why I use a social networking site in the first place. A 'cool' way to organize the people I know does not justify a move at this point."

But still, some readers appear to be loyal to Facebook.

"I see no reason to move to Google+. Facebook works well and all my friends are there," user Don Reba said.

Google+ has only been around for about a month, so how it will perform in the long run remains to be seen. The comparison of Google+ to Facebook is unavoidable, and perhaps Google has launched its social network at just the right time to take a bite out of Facebook's 750 million users; the site has been plagued by low consumer satisfaction and pervasive privacy concerns.

It's possible Google+ fans are in the honeymoon stage with the new platform, too; the fresh social network has its own issues, as Google figures out how to handle businesses and pseudonyms on the site.