Google+ trounces Facebook in user satisfaction

Irked by changes to its user interface and privacy issues, customer satisfaction with social network site Facebook has suffered a major decline among US citizens this year, says a new report, Business Standard writes.

The American Customer Satisfaction Index “E-Business Report”, in collaboration with research firm Foresee, comes days before the release of Facebook's first quarterly earnings since it went public.

According to the report, the social networking giant's customer satisfaction has plunged 7.6% to 61 points on a 100-point scale - a new record-low score for the social media category.

“...Users complain about ads and privacy concerns. However, the most frequent complaints about Facebook are changes to its user interface, most recently the introduction of the 'Timeline' feature," the report said.

Facebook, with an unrivalled 800 million user-base worldwide, lagged behind social media network Google+ in terms of user satisfaction. Google+, measured for the first time by ASCI, scored 78 points on the index, The Economic Times reports.

The strong score was attributed to the absence of traditional advertising and superior apps for mobile devices.

Foresee president and CEO Larry Freed says: “I expect Google to leverage its multiple properties and mobile capabilities to attract users at a rapid pace. If Facebook doesn't feel the pressure to improve customer satisfaction now, that may soon change.”

According to Hindustan Times, the social media segment reported a decrease of 1.4% to 69 points this year, the report said.

Tied with Google+ at the first rank, Wikipedia led the social media category for a third straight year, with 78 points.

Other social media sites that performed better than Facebook on user satisfaction were photo-sharing site Pinterest, at 69 points, professional networking site LinkedIn, at 63 points, and Twitter, at 64 points.