Following close behind, Facebook unveiled some sweeping changes of its own, rearranging its News Feed and adding a real-time update ticker to profile pages.

The nearly simultaneous announcements, probably just a coincidence, are nonetheless evidence of the escalating competition between the two powerhouse companies.

Ever since Google+ launched in June (growing quickly to 25 million users who had to be invited to join), Facebook has aggressively added, enhanced, or otherwise changed key features of the site. Hangouts, which lets Google+ users video chat, was Google’s one-up on Facebook. Not even two weeks later, Facebook called a press conference to announce a partnership with Skype and its own video chat service.

When it launched, one of the more compelling Google+ features was its “Circles,” allowing users to organize connections as they see fit. Different messages can be sent to different circles.

Facebook’s one-group approach didn’t allow for different levels of connectedness; lists were available, but so clunky to create and manage that few people used them.  Last week, Facebook addressed that shortcoming, improving Friend Lists. Now, not only can users easily create lists where photos and posts are in one place, but the Smart Lists features automatically assembles groups based on common interests. The latter feature is optional to use.

At the same time as the lists improvements, Facebook also introduced a Subscribe button, letting users choose what they want in their news feeds and to get updates from non-friends.

Now Facebook has gone a step further still, rolling out a reorganized news feed. Instead of presenting status updates in chronological order, Facebook will present what its algorithms decide is the hottest or top news from your friends and people to whom you’ve subscribed. The more frequently you check Facebook, the more recent the posts. But if you visit only every so often, your top news item might be days old. Top news items are marked with a blue corner.

Perhaps needless to say, since every Facebook change seems to be met with resistance, user comments are mostly negative. The Baltimore Sun offers a collection of some of the funniest of them. If you have any doubt about the growing number of Boomers among Facebook’s 750 million users, here’s one of the comments on the Sun’s page: “Zuckerberg apparently hired the genius behind New Coke to run Facebook.”

Meanwhile, Google, which used its heavily trafficked search page to promote Google+, began offering a mobile version of Hangouts. Now users with Android-powered phones with front-facing cameras can hold video chats. An iPhone version is coming, Google promised.

The other improvements to Hangouts (the 100th was the public launch of Google+) include screen sharing, Google Docs integration, and a broadcast feature it calls Hangouts On Air, which makes recording and broadcasting of a session. Not all of these are fully available, but they are on their way.

The interest in the competition between Google and Facebook is evidently high. New features and enhancements in services will usually get a mention in the tech blogs. But the Facebook changes and the Google+ public launch has garnered wide interest. Event the Christian Science Monitor has weighed in with a post it headlined “Facebook changes vs. Google+: Who made the best updates?“

As we have over the past few years with ERE’s events, we will be streaming the event live here on the ERE.net homepage for free for those of you who can’t be in attendance. We kick off on Monday morning at 9:15 a.m. CDT! You can view the entire agenda and what will be streaming here.

The goal for this event is not to tell you WHY you should be using social recruiting tactics, but to help you learn HOW you can successfully implement them into your recruiting function. Our session leaders will all share stories from their successes (and things they have learned from their failures) that have all been tried at their organizations — organizations like Best Buy, Facebook, Principal Financial Group, DAXCO, AT&T, APCO Worldwide and Marriott, among others. You can see more about all of our session leaders here.

The event will also feature several unconference sessions, where the agenda will be shaped directly by those in attendance… and you. While these events won’t be featured on the stream, you can still submit topics of interest to you and the industry. You can also snag one of the remaining few spots at the summit as well. To submit your topic idea, just enter it into the form here:

The stream will take place on the top of the ERE.net homepage through Ustream. There is nothing that you will need to download; just come to the site on Monday morning, shortly before we kick off the event at 9:15 a.m. CDT, and you will see the box. You just need to click the play button and you will be all set. There is also a chat component there, so you can talk to others watching the stream, and even those in attendance in New York.

You will also want to check out Twitter for more great conversation from the event by following the #socialrecruiting hashtag and the @socrecruiting handle. The past two events featured well over 1,500 tweets during the event, much of which are from those in attendance, so this is another great way to join the conversation even if you can’t make it to Minneapolis.

So make sure to clear your calendar for Monday, as this is certainly something you won’t want to miss. And if you able to make it out on Monday, there are still (at least as I post this) a few tickets left to attend.

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Follow the Social Recruiting Summit on Twitter

It was great to see the social media world, especially Twitter, come to life from the many people ‘tweeting’ live, up-to-the-minute posts during the presentations. You can still access the twitter stream to see some of the insightful tidbits shared by all of you.

For some other follow-up thoughts, check out some of the blog posts here, here, and here.

Naturally, we’re not done talking about it either. John Sullivan is working on a further look at some of the award-winners. And Tuesday on ERE.net we’ll offer tips for your careers website in hopes you can win next year’s site award like Yahoo did this time around. Accenture (employee-referral winner) will be featured in the May Journal, and the American Cancer Society will speak this Fall.

Speaking of the Fall: If you weren’t able to make it to San Diego, our annual ERE Expo 2009 Fall conference is approaching. Still a few weeks to take advantage of our big early bird discounts as well so check it out soon.

Here is what is going on in the ERE world this week:

• On Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. ET, our sister site debuts its newest Fordyce TV show – Living the Dream with Jordan Rayborn. Jordan has taken working virtually to the next level. Often called the RV Recruiter, this big biller works wherever his heart and business take him, and typically some of the most beautiful places in the country. This episode will be coming from the hill country outside of Austin, TX. See more about the show and Jordan’s story here.
• Also, in The Fordyce Letter world, the third annual Fordyce Forum is returning to Las Vegas in just a few months. If you are in the search and placement side of the business you won’t want to miss this.
• On Wednesday, sign up for this week’s free ERE webinar — 2009 Sources of Hire: What is Different in Today’s Market and Why You Should Care, led by Gerry Crispin from CareerXroads.
• Did you see that last week we announced the launch of our newest event – Social Recruiting Summit? The agenda is still being completed, but see where we are now and register for the early bird discount. If you are on Twitter, make sure to join the discussion by following @socrecruiting.
• A few weeks ago, we asked for your help as we are getting closer to launching the new community side of ERE.net. The other day we added some new features and are getting even closer! Here is your chance to help us help you develop the most valuable community in the recruiting industry, so take a look and let us know what you think!

Have a great week! If you have any questions about any of this feel free to leave them in the comments below.