Same here. Although I don't necessarily envy them; Facebook has a huge advantage by virtue of network effects.
I don't know anyone who really likes Facebook; they've alienated users with privacy missteps and stupid interface changes over and over and over. But everyone keeps using it because that's where everyone else is. Somehow you have to break that cycle.
If anyone can do it though, it's probably Google. They effectively broke the back of the fat-and-lazy AOL Instant Messenger (at least in my experience) when they built chat into Gmail. Once they did that, AIM went from a "must-have" on most of my friends' computers to something they barely remember their login information to anymore.
Here's hoping they can find some leverage to get a critical mass of users over from Facebook.
Facebook certainly benefits from network effects, but it will be interesting to see if Google can benefit from the potential of complementarity between its products that Facebook doesn't have. In my mind, two of Google's most valuable assets are Chrome and its affiliation with Android, both of which have been gaining marketshare. If they get a non-invasive Chrome toolbar and a sleek Android app out, you could get Google+ in front of a whole lot of users pretty quickly and make it a natural extension of people's mobile and browsing activity.
Also, Circles might help mitigate the network effect advantage of Facebook. Even if only one of your real-life circles (say your early adopting tech nerd friends) sign up at first, it can provide some functionality while it is still being more widely adopted by other groups.
Facebook's interface is much better than Orkut's interface, Orkut is a social network that was acquired by Google some years ago, and it does have the broadcast feature that made twitter popular, so Brazilians, were Orkut was really popular, loves Facebook.
I think that Google can leverage adoption by targeting android users and creating a good application for them.
EDIT: Orkut still is really popular here in Brazil but the majority of my friends migrated to Facebook and do not login in Orkut anymore.
I don't know anyone who really likes Facebook; they've alienated users with privacy missteps and stupid interface changes over and over and over. But everyone keeps using it because that's where everyone else is. Somehow you have to break that cycle.
If anyone can do it though, it's probably Google. They effectively broke the back of the fat-and-lazy AOL Instant Messenger (at least in my experience) when they built chat into Gmail. Once they did that, AIM went from a "must-have" on most of my friends' computers to something they barely remember their login information to anymore.
Here's hoping they can find some leverage to get a critical mass of users over from Facebook.