Will Facebook launch 'Facebook+' Similar to Google Next Week?

Google Inc. launched its most aggressive social network effort Google+, which looks remarkably similar to Facebook in terms of aesthetics and could pose as a threat to Facebook's dominance. Will Facebook counter this with 'Facebook+' next week?

Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg is clearly disturbed with Google's way into the social networking.

In an apparent effort to retain Facebook users from exporting friends' list to Google+ and setting up their online social hub there, Zuckerberg has said that the company is set to launch something awesome next week, without divulging what exactly it is.

A rumor suggests another Facebook phone apart from the social phones launched by INQ and HTC. Speculation is growing that the upcoming announcement may be a long-awaited Facebook app for Apple Inc.'s iPad and a specialized app for photo-sharing on the iPhone.

Still, Facebook has not introduced an app for iPad which was unveiled more than a year ago. Another rumor, courtesy of TechCrunch, is about a new photo-sharing Facebook app. The blog recently reported that it had a 50MB file of images and documents on an app from Facebook that would let users share photos. It would be a separate app built especially for photo-sharing.

There are some fans who expect Facebook to launch a news aggregator site similar to Google, but contains only those news shared by users of Facebook, apart from a tie-up with Microsoft's Bing. But some fans expect Facebook to compete with Google by launching another separate search engine altogether.

There has been speculation that Facebook might launch a 'Facebook+' software app, which can be installed in a computer or laptop or tablet or mobile device, wherein the user can get instant notifications similar to the SMS notifications. The only restriction is that Internet connection is required.

But others are expecting Facebook to launch video chat in the site, so users won't miss seeing there friends or family even if they are away from home. Certain people are expecting Facebook to come up with ideas on free e-mail, shopping search, books, documents sharing, and reader.

Facebook has more than 500 million active users and 50 percent of them log on to Facebook in any given day. Average user has 130 friends and people spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook.

Will Facebook come up with any idea and call it as 'Facebook+'? Will Facebook try to compete with Google? It remains to be seen next week.