Facebook + Instagram = Beat Google?

This week, Facebookannounced its acquisition of photo sharing program Instagramfor… (picture Dr. Evil putting his finger to his lips)  $1 billion dollars. Was this a desperate act to buy up the perceived competition or did Facebook have other motivations behind the purchase?

Most social media marketers seem to think it was a move to stop the competition and gain additional brainpower by merging with the innovative Instagram team. Another way to look at it, as proposed by Jim Dougherty’s blog post on Leader’s West this week, is that Facebook’s buy is actually a chess move against Google to shore up the young, mobile user demographic. It’s an interesting theory, and it will be fascinating to see how this acquisition plays out over the coming months.

In the meantime, Google announced an update to its Google + user interface on Wednesday and – surprise, surprise – it looks eerily familiar. The overall looks and navigation is designed to be cleaner and simpler with an improved Hangouts section. You can even add a cover photo to your profile, although the general feeling is this effort may be “too little, too late.”

I, for one, am excited to see Facebook and Google go head to head. America was built on healthy competition to spur innovation. What do you think of the Instagram acquisition by Facebook? Which social media giant do you think is going to come out on top? Leave us your thoughts in the comments section.