• TechCrunch, Friday, July 8, 2011 10:58 AM

With the recent arrival of Google+, the battle for Web dominance is reaching new heights between Google and Facebook. "They both want to be the center of the Internet -- but there can be only one center," writes TechCrunch. "While it's still far from clear what the actual impact of G+ will be on the Internet at large, it's pretty clear already that it's something Facebook is going to have to take seriously. And they are."

As such, Facebook just launched a video chat feature a week after Google did in G+. Last summer, Facebook rushed to get the new Groups done in time to beat Circles to the same punch. "But where things are going to be really interesting is on the social sharing front," TechCrunch insists.

"Facebook has long been in the lead here - and is proud of it. But after just a week, it sure seems like Google+ is seeing some impressive numbers as well." To boot, a small change Google just quietly made -- letting publishers track the referrals coming in to their site from G+ -- shows how seriously it's now taking social.

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