The ability to organize connections into separate circles is one of the main features being touted by Google Plus, along with the “Hangout” feature — a way to video chat with several different people at the same time. However, Nicole Ellison, an associate professor of telecommunication, information studies and media at MSU, is not convinced that many Facebook users will make the move to Google Plus.

“I think, if that happens, it won’t happen for a very long time,” she said. “There is a fair amount of energy involved in a transition like that, and recreating a network of 600 or 700 people will take some time.”

Ellison said, while Google Plus is unlikely to take over Facebook’s user base completely, many students probably will use both services for a while. She added that Google Plus likely is something that will be taught in social media classes offered at MSU.

“I think any entry by a player like Google into the social media space warrants inclusion into a curriculum around social media,” she said.

It also could grow to become an important communication tool for professors to use with their students, she added.

Cliff Lampe, an assistant professor in the telecommunication, information studies and media, said researchers at MSU already have been using Google Plus to communicate with one another.

“We use (Hangout) to have lab meetings when people are in distributed locations,” he said.

Education senior Yasmine Abdulhamid has been using Google Plus for two weeks, and she said the Hangout feature would be beneficial for students to use when coordinating on group projects. She said her experience with the service has been great, and she deleted her Facebook profile several days ago in favor of Google Plus.

“I just like it way better than Facebook,” Abdulhamid said. “I feel like targeting posts towards certain people is more useful than what Facebook has to offer.”

Along with the ability to control who sees what, Abdulhamid said integration with Google’s other services also was a major benefit of Google Plus over Facebook, and she expected to see others follow her lead in making the switch.

Lampe said, while he has seen a number of students gravitate towards using Google Plus, he did not expect the social networking service to become more popular than Facebook.

“I’m still having a hard time seeing what the value add is over Facebook,” he said. “It’s going to be a hard sell.”