The very first day Google+ launched, it automatically registered as another social networking hub that would transform the twin towers into three titans: Facebook, Twitter and Google+. The social networking diaspora has inspired start-ups and small-time players to dream big and go mainstream. However, with extreme popularity of their predecessors, it is almost inevitable for “copycat” issues to surface. This is what Picostorm Code Labs is trying to battle. Picostorm is building their business around private group sharing services.

Picostorm Explains

To address rumors of replicating Google+ key features, they released an infographic that documents the birth of its main features, Spheres and Predictive Planner.  They’re Picostorm’s equivalent to Google+’s Circles and Schemer. A portion of Picostorm’s blog post reads:

“This brings us up to date. At this point we are both astounded and concerned since we are close to a wide scale release of our platform, and we’re afraid it would appear to everyone like we’re just copying Google+, even down to the feature names, which is simply not the case.”

The timeline displayed in this inforgraphic reveals that the three mentioned social features of Picostorm were already in the works as early as July of 2010, long before Google+ rose to the forefront of social networking craze. Picostorm launching its social arm Flozaic is one of the reasons they have to explain to the public that they won’t be just second-rate social hub. In this light, the company files key patents and secures international trademarks before they move on to the next round of funding.

Google+ Thrives On a Different Doctrine… But Wants a Piece of Facebook

Early on the world recognized that Google+ was built on a varied principle.  Hoping to take Facebook’s initial concepts of social sharing to the next level, Google+ centers around private group sharing and deeper integration with other Google services. Simply put, Facebook wants you to use Facebook, period. Google+ loves it when you linger on their search engine and watch YouTube clips, because these clearly expose users to advertising campaigns across Google’s platform.

One thing remains true: Google+ is still unsuccessful in attempting to overthrow Facebook as the world’s favorite social network. But, this just fuels Google to innovate around user engagement, including several new features that look quite similar to Picostorm’s.  It’s indicative of a trend around a new era in social networking, where contextualized sharing is far more valuable than broad streams, and action-oriented capabilities enable you to do more with your connections.

One of the improvements that Google+ will soon offer is Gmail integration, finally! They have also released two features that shift the power back to users as to how public they want their content, a vital aspect of any widespread social network of the future.

Although the pillars are found with divergent ideals, Google+ still fancies Facebook’s immense grasp of the market. Especially now that Zuckerberg’s brainchild prepares to make history with an IPO in 2012.