

Google working on a Facebook competitor: Google Me - brianclintwud
http://gigaom.com/2010/06/28/google-trying-to-build-facebook-competitor-good-luck-with-that/

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phreeza
At some point, Google is bound to get "social" right. Maybe this time round.
Maybe the next.

Once they do, however, they will have some serious synergy effects with all
their existing projects, which Facebook, Twitter etc don't have.

~~~
patrickk
Not to mention Google can afford to experiment and make mistakes like Wave,
Buzz and Orkut. Whereas Facebook or Twitter don't have that luxury as their
revenues are a fraction of Google's.

Personally, I think web search is a lot more valuable compared to social
networking. I hardly ever even bother to check my FB profile anymore. If I
want to get in contact with a friend, I text or call them on the phone. If I
wish to maintain a business contact, LinkedIn is the way to go. At one time
MySpace seemed like a good purchase for $580 million. In a bubble economy,
things look best right at the peak. I don't know if Facebook has peaked, but
if they continue to become ever-more spam infested and continue to annoy and
frustrate users over privacy, I can see someone beating them at their own
game.

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axod
It is however surprising just how big mistakes Wave and Buzz have been (IMHO).

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phreeza
Buzz still seems superior to me technologically. The reason it hasn't caught
on is probably either lack of simplictiy, or bad luck/timing.

Wave I see as a work in progress/concept work. Features will probably bleed
over to docs over time. In that it is not a failure I would say.

~~~
jokermatt999
I think part of the reason Buzz hasn't caught on is the privacy debacle at the
start. It left people with a bad association with Buzz, and that's not
something that's easy to shake.

Wave I see mostly as an experiment. It can do some cool stuff, but I've never
really had a use for it. I did see it used for streaming commentary the Google
I/O keynote (courtesy of Lifehacker), and it worked fantastically for that. In
fact, I'd say that was the nicest live coverage method I've seen. However, I
_personally_ still have not found a use for Wave.

~~~
jraines
For me Buzz is the tweets of about a dozen people I already follow on Twitter.

~~~
confuzatron
For me, it's one guy 'liking' YouTube videos.

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arethuza
Like everything else that is social - social networks are likely to be
cyclical. Things that are fashionable will become unfashionable once
_everyone_ uses it and people will move onto the next cool environment.

Rinse repeat every 5 years or so.

If Google can time this right so that it becomes the next fashionable social
network then it might well succeed.

~~~
detst
Very true. I'm not a teenager but I can imagine Facebook is definitely beyond
"cool" for them at this point. Their parents and extended family are now their
friends on Facebook. They'll soon be ready for the next thing where they can
be with just their friends.

~~~
Tautology
I am a teenager, and Facebook has not been cool ever since the police use it
as a way prosecute underage drinking.

~~~
madh
Do you still use Facebook or is there something else out there that teenagers
are using?

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jyu
Anyone else concerned about privacy? Google already has heaps of your search
data, can track browsing history with the doubleclick and adsense network
already. With social network data, they can directly tie in who you associate
with, age, birthdate, etc.

~~~
TheBurningOr
I'm actually less concerned about Google having my data than, say Facebook.
Google already has a ton of my data, but they don't sell it off to third
parties. They practically define the analytics and targeted advertising.
Facebook's problem is that they can't figure out how to actually make money
with the data they have so they're resorting to selling it to third parties
(Google, Bing, Yelp, Pandora, CNN, etc). That is what scares me at least.

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imagii
I'm not too sure how this would fare. People already have trust issues with
Google, not sure how willing they would be to give Google (more) access to
their lives.

~~~
paulnelligan
I'd feel safer in the hands of google than facebook to be honest.

I have a recurring nightmare that one day, all the world's software developers
will be facebook/apple employees and that startups will be limited to the
facebook/apple platform, made by facebook/apple subsidiaries, and will only be
available to those with a few million to throw at the advertising...

~~~
Jun8
I don't understand why you feel this way, do you have any rational
justification, or is it just a gut feeling? I don't know if you use GMail but
Google already has a lot of information about you. Do you also want them to
have your social network?

EDIT: If you want to downvote OK, but please also add a comment with an
_argument_ to back your beliefs, other than "I think Facebook is evil"

~~~
vog
With Google, it's at least "just" Google who has the personal data.

With Faceboook, a lot of unwanted entities get access to personal data.
([http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870451310457525...](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704513104575256701215465596.html))

Also, disabling the "sharing" of all personal information is quite cumbersome
in Facebook.
([http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/05/12/business/faceb...](http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/05/12/business/facebook-
privacy.html))

Google does have its drawbacks, but compared to the "social websites" it seems
to be the lesser evil.

~~~
Jun8
The links you cite are before the latest big changes to the security procedure
in FB. Have you tried it after the changes?

Also "just" Google may be bigger than you think, e.g. your voice or text mail
may end up in a lot of different departments that use it to train algorithms.
Remember what happened with their WiFi sniffing.

My default stand is: all big companies are evil and _will_ abuse my data if
they need to. Therefore I want to spread the chances of abuse among different
companies.

~~~
jsankey
I think the biggest difference is that Google has aligned its interests more
in line with users (as their best long-term strategy). Facebook seems willing
to exploit users any way they can.

It's wise to be cautious sharing your data with any large company, but not all
of them are created equal.

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fname
Adam D’Angelo: [http://www.quora.com/Is-Google-Me-a-fake-rumour-
Misleading-e...](http://www.quora.com/Is-Google-Me-a-fake-rumour-Misleading-
evolutionary-product-update-Or-is-it-really-a-new-social-network-from-Google)

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Jun8
Currently this is just a rumor but it seems to be well-founded. If they do
this, it would be the one of the stupidest things that Google has done: (i)
Facebook has grown too large for just another contender, even from Google, to
kill it easily, people (including me) will show great resistance since they
have so much time invested in FB; (ii) People do have trust issues with
Google, I want to hedge my information among different big companies. Google
already has my checkout, voice and mail, I don't want them to also have all my
social network.

Social is the buzz but I can't understand why the big G is wasting time on
such things while not updating their Android Market strategy or trying to
better their very weak TV offering. The social battle is won by FB, accept
this and gear up for a different one.

~~~
stcredzero
_people (including me) will show great resistance since they have so much time
invested in FB_

The solution is to make something that can coexist with Facebook which solves
the problems with using FB. The truth is that you _don't_ have to absorb
someone's entire social graph. You only really want the approximate 20% they
talk to about 80% of the time. That's the part with most of the value anyhow.
In fact, knowing what that 20% is might be even more valuable than having the
entire graph. What this means is that a genuinely useful Facebook adjunct can
easily map out the most valuable part of the Facebook graph.

Note that Myspace and Facebook coexisted for awhile.

~~~
Jun8
Good point! Cringely was talking about the disadvantages of huge social graphs
recently, too (<http://www.cringely.com/2010/05/lets-get-small/>). I don't
think so. I think the interesting messages coming from the 80% I communicate
20% of the time may be even more valuable, e.g. to casually keep in touch,
learn interesting stuff, etc.

A social app is not just status messages.How will the Google social app easily
absorb all the photos, etc. I'm sharing in FB? What if the friends I enjoy on
FB decide not to join the Google thing? I think tehse are _huge_ drawbacks.
Look at Plaxo, Ning, etc. They are just wannabes in this space.

You are right about MySpace and FB, but the crowds they were catering to
quickly diverged. That also explains how LinkedIn can thrive independent of
FB.

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seanlinmt
I'm not surprised at the news actually. And I'll put my money on Google Me
being based on the OpenSocial framework. Wave, Buzz, iGoogle, Google Friend
Connect etc. looks like MVPs which would fit into this new social network.
Part of the master plan.

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babobear
no matter what the results of google vs facebook will be, we can be sure this
has currently given quora a lot of press. very ingenius marketing

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steveranger
The clue is in the title I think. This will be a standard profile page aimed
at business users (a bit like LinkedIn) - OR perhaps just a connections site
for people. Your average web user will not use a service named 'Google Me' as
a social networking tool like Facebook. If this supposed site/project is
happening that is.

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phreeza
When I enter "google me" in google, it shows me:

See results for: teyana taylor

What is that about??

~~~
what
Seems she wrote a song titled google me in which she tells people to google
her.

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jflowers45
If only it could be as successful as Google's Twitter competitor, Google Buzz!

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city41
Nothing wrong with giving something the ol' college try. I admire Google's
desire to get out there.

~~~
mikeryan
There are plenty of things wrong with the "ol' college try", the a few big
ones off the top of my head would be a dilution of resources (engineering and
otherwise - though this doesn't seem to bother Google much). Turning allies
into enemies - I'm not really sure its smart for Google to try to "beat"
everyone in the valley. They need some strategic partners. Brand overload -
frankly as much as I like, and use, some Google products, I'm getting
seriously sick of them sticking their nose into every corner of the internet.

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maw
You know what they say: the hojillionth time's the charm.

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tybris
Again?

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tszming
Google should buy Twitter.

