June 28th 2014 marks the 3rd birthday of Google’s social networking platform Google+. At only three years old, it is still in its infancy yet it has faced the harshest of criticisms and ridicule at times of all the social networks.

Heralded as Google’s competitor to Facebook, Google+ has not taken off as some would have predicted, especially with the might of corporate Google behind it. Nonetheless, the social network is still in the growth stage and has been tweaked in terms of design and functionality many times since its inception.

Google+ has an attractive interface as many have commented but the problem is that few have all their peers on it in comparison to the likes of Facebook. Too often Google+, the social network is a place used by digital markets solely for search engine optimisation purposes.

This infographic by dpfoc.com charts Google’s history with the world of social networking, what has worked and what hasn’t. It also compares Google+ to its largest rival Facebook in terms of different variables which makes interesting reading and it also attempts to address what is in the future for the social network.