Facebook To Thwart Google+ Excitement With An "Awesome" Launch Next Week?

Google+ was just launched and has stirred a lot of buzz that will hopefully last longer than Google Buzz. This is the search giant's second major attempt at creating a social platform to rival that of Facebook and folks are vying for invitations to join. Could all this excitement have caused some concern for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg?

It appears that Zuckerberg has already gotten his Google+ invitation with the profile (screenshot above) looking rather legit. His profiles reads "I make things" and shows that Facebook CTO, Bret Taylor, is in one of his Circles. However, he doesn't look all that happy in his profile picture. Perhaps, Google is on to something this time?

It may just be coincidental, but Zuckerberg has told reporters today that Facebook plans to "launch something awesome" next week. Although there are no details on what the product will be, he did say that it was a project developed at the company's new 40-person Seattle office—the only major engineering center for Facebook outside of its headquarters in Palo Alto, California.

Most speculation point to the product being mobile-related, such as a Facebook app designed for the iPad and the rumored photo-sharing app for the iPhone.

[via Reuters]