Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla, The Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur: rivals, competitors, sworn enemies. History is full of such pairs, struggling to outdo each other at every turn and ultimately rule the soccer/science/hip-hop/what-have-you kingdom. Now add Facebook and Google+ to the list.

Ever since Google+ came out (as an invitation-only field-trial version) on June 28, the online community has been anticipating a head-to-head battle between the two social network giants. Over the summer months, Facebook was busy launching several new features: video calling and group chat functions (two much-needed improvements in light of Google’s Hangouts feature); Subscriptions, a Twitter-like tool that lets you follow people you’re not friends with; and more nuanced privacy settings, especially for photo tagging.

Apparently, Facebook was just getting started. Over the past few days, the web has been circulating rumors of some truly radical changes to be announced at f8, Facebook’s developer conference, taking place today in San Francisco. If the leaks are to be believed, the ubiquitous “Like” button will be joined (or replaced?) by “Read,” “Listened,” and “Watched”. These buttons will come in handy with the – extremely likely – integration of social music services like Spotify, Rdio, MOG, SoundCloud, Deezer and Rhapsody. The idea is that you’ll be able to see exactly what song/video/article your friends are listening to/watching/reading, when they’re doing it. Real-time updates. Intrigued? Disgusted? The real question is how will Google+ respond?

By staying one step ahead of the competition. Yesterday, the day before f8, in a very strategic maneuver, Google released the beta version of Google+ and nine enhancements and opened it up to everyone. Talk about a one-two (three) punch. Most of the new features revolve around the previously mentioned Hangouts function. Now Google+ users will be able to use the video and group chat functions on their smartphone, and some lucky – read, important – users will be able to make public video broadcasts with the On Air feature. Other extras include screensharing, Sketchpad, Google Docs, named Hangouts, and an API for Hangouts. The biggest plus for users (pun intended) is the new search function on Google+, which returns relevant results from content posted within the site as well as from the web.

The battle between Facebook and Google+ for control of the social internet – let’s face it, we’re way past simple “networking” – is far from over. And that’s a good thing: As long as the rivalry stands, we all benefit. Let the one-upping begin.