If home is where the heart is, then the heart of Houston’s luxury communities from River Oaks to Tanglewood evoke the essence of traditional American classic estates and homes of classic excellence. Houston’s premiere homes have long been the heart of the first class service and success found only with John Daugherty, Realtors.

For almost a quarter of a century, John Daugherty, Realtors has been bringing Santa to Houston’s finest neighborhoods.

Join us Saturday, December 3rd for “Photos with Santa.”  We will gift you with images of you and Santa.  Visit any of our locations below between 10am and 1pm for photos:

• River Oaks Area – River Oaks Park, 3600 Locke Lane (map)
• Tanglewood Area – Tanglewood Corp., 1661 Tanglewood Blvd. (map) - also featuring carriage rides courtesy of James E. Bashaw & Co. from 10am – 12pm
• Memorial – Memorial Drive Baptist Church, 325 N. Piney Point. (map)
• West University Area – Colonial Park, 4130 Byron (map)
• Bellaire – Nature Discovery Center, 7112 Newcastle (map)
• Heights – Donovan Park, 700 Heights Blvd. (map)
• Briargrove Park – 2301 Seagler (map)

by Darren Moore

Can they steal you away from Facebook?  Or is it too late? Will Google+ end up pulling the plug?

I personally think Google+ is too late to play in the ball game; they should have been there 2 years ago when Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn were getting fired up.

Facebook has become a household “Digital Brand Name,” just like Coca-Cola and Pepsi.  The popular social-networking service is promoted everywhere – TV, news channels, businesses, the list goes on. It will be extremely difficult for Google+ to gain a share of the market, especially when people are still figuring out Facebook and have built up their fan base and friends list.  It would be like hitting the reset button and starting over.  I don’t think many people are up for that.  The people I’ve talked to have said, “Oh, another social media site to keep up with, why?”  It’s sort of like saying, Google will start bottling and selling soft drinks?!?

Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter connected the dots and created the standards in social media.  They got the bandwagon rolling 2 years ago and now Google+ wants to jump on the fast-moving wagon?  From my perspective, if Google+ wants to play ball, they are going to have to create a new bandwagon, but that will be challenging.

However, competition is healthy and necessary! It creates better products and user-friendly platforms.  Facebook is about to launch an entire new platform in the next coming weeks, and I am sure that Google was their inspiration.  Facebook already has implemented a few features that Google+ has, such as the “lists” which Google+  calls “circles.”

I am a digital marketer myself, and I personally like Google+ better. But where are the fans and your friends? It’s not happening here yet.  Additionally, new users to social media will more than likely set up an account on Facebook because that’s where their friends and family are.

Google has their challenges cut out for them.  Perhaps if Google can develops a killer business platform, that might help with their bandwagon.  Only time will tell — and time in the digital world is only 1 day away.

Overall, Google + is an impressive product and it’s forcing Facebook to innovate faster (and respect people’s privacy a little more) which is good for everyone. This infographic provides some interesting statistics and visual data on the social network showdown between Facebook and Google +

CLICK IMAGE FOR FULL SIZE

Infographic by the creative people at Single Grain.