

Google Profiles just got updated - jedc
http://googlesocialweb.blogspot.com/2011/03/decide-what-world-sees-when-it-searches.html

======
lightcatcher
Interesting. I just learned about Google Profiles earlier today while reading
up about WebFinger and OpenID. Google Profiles also support hCard, the
microformat.

Google Profiles don't seem to have much practical use to me besides being
useful for standards compliant stuff. I really wish Buzz became popular in
place of Twitter, its a much better (and more open) platform in my opinion.

~~~
tonfa
Well buzz still miss a retweet equivalent (reshare + close comments is the
closest thing).

------
izendejas
Google needs to add a little lock to all posts that are private, or indicate
which are. I freaked out when I thought some of my picasa albums were visible
publicly--and feared that had pulled another buzz. Luckily that's not the
case, but it's not immediately obvious.

------
healsdata
Doesn't seem like the updated the old URLs for profiles.

[http://www.google.com/profiles/<username>](http://www.google.com/profiles/<username>);
is showing the old style profile while
[https://profiles.google.com/<username>](https://profiles.google.com/<username>);
is in the new style.

Bummer because, when editing my profile in the new style, it tells me that the
correct URL is the first.

~~~
tonfa
I think you'll have to wait for the rollout to propagate to get it in both
places.

------
viviensin
I had this huge debate with regard to our vision of Google's future today. The
question was whether Google should stay focused on developing its distinctive
competence: being a superior search solution, and monetize through
advertising, or whether it should branch into new ideas such as Checkout
functions or even desktop products. Personally, I think it's crucial that
Google to strike a balance between external acquisition and internal
development for these reasons:

In terms of internal development, Google’s ultimate mission is to serve as a
superior search function for people. So due to the saturation of the market in
web search and consistency with company culture, I believe Google should
leverage core tech to expand into niche search markets and strengthen
additional platforms. More specifically, google should expand into niche
search markets or industries where information needs to be more open and
organized, for instance, the arts industry, the fashion industry, etc. In
additionally, I believe small mobile devices will continue to grow in terms of
user base, especially in emerging economies where more people could afford
such devices. Therefore, creating applications that ties in with its platform
should also be a part of Google’s platform development.

Externally, Google, by becoming or adopting the image of Microsoft has brought
negative attention to many other high-growth companies, increasing hostility
and competition from companies including Microsoft, Ebay, etc. To avoid
multiple organizations joining hands to go up against the giant and hence,
increasing costs like it has been in the past few years. Google needs to learn
to adopt new market in a subtler manner. Instead of creating all
functionalities explicitly under Google’s name, acquire small enterprises that
serve similar functions and avoid too much publicity during the acquisition.

Item number 8 of Google's philosophy highlights the importance of going across
borders. Neighboring Asian countries such as Japan (38.20% of market share),
and South Korea (3% of market share) fancy locally flavored search engines
such as Yahoo Japan over Google, seeing it as a form of “cultural
imperialism”. In the end of the day, Google is user-based and a service
product. Creating fear among users, in addition to competitors, weakens the
potential growth of all other platform products it is developing. The solution
to this ties in with the discrete acquisition suggestion- to create products
that are culturally sensitive.

So instead of attempting to produce additional breakthrough products, I
believe Google should keep in mind its core philosophies and focus in, with
cultural sensitivity in mind, strengthening additional platforms and expanding
into niche search market.

~~~
joebadmo
What you're forgetting is that social networks are a threat to Google's
primary business because they offer better signals for/an alternative to
search. I think the strategic play for Google is own all the social signals,
or at least have them be in open formats that they can crawl.

~~~
viviensin
which is what google is doing, especially with its launch of "real time"
search which includes recent tweets. There are two paths google could take- to
venture on trying to own all the social signals (which is what bing is trying
to do!) or work on securing its image as the "objective" and professional
platform. There are rumors that google will start its own "facebook"/ social
network tool, and many users have voted against it, claiming that they want to
keep gmail and other google usage professional rather than social.

------
ivan_ah
Wow! This is a major move. In a simultaneous attack on fb and linkedin. The
fight for the "profile" page is on.

It is like the internet revolution all over again, but for the masses. Most
people with any sense in them already have a ~uname/ somewhere and //that// is
their profile. But for "monsieur tout le monde" it is too complicated to order
hosting and install wordpress on it.

This is why everyone absolutely //loves// facebook -- because suddenly they
can heave their "own website". Sure its just a wall and mostly used for other
people to spy on you, but you can spy on them too so isn't it a great deal?

This seems like a sure flop to me because it is essentially an escalation of
rights from knowing my email address to knowing a bunch of other things about
me. Not cool.

On a different note, it is funny to see Google try something and fail... we
have gotten used to their superpower, maybe they are not so strong after all.
Has the Goliath gotten slow?

------
jedc
Not a huge update, but it's much cleaner looking than current profiles.

~~~
digitaltothem
Yes, that was my first impression too. Looks much cleaner, info displayed
better. The old ones look a bit stuffed, they highlighted simplicity in the
new ones.

------
chrismealy
How much do you have to share to not get "To have your profile featured, add
more information about yourself" anymore? It's a mystery, and finding out is a
pretty dull game.

~~~
tonfa
This no longer exist, now you just have a checkbox "make your profile visible
in search". For me that is a huge improvement.

------
catshirt
does anyone know if i can expect this to ever work with google apps for your
domain?

------
Kilimanjaro
Good, now please allow an API to get your avatar using your gmail address.
While we're at it, allow me to get some public info via JSON too. ktxby.

~~~
willnorris
sure –
[https://www.googleapis.com/buzz/v1/people/wnorris@gmail.com/...](https://www.googleapis.com/buzz/v1/people/wnorris@gmail.com/@self?alt=json&pp=1)

Note that this will only work for users that have activated Buzz

~~~
tonfa
Or you can get it from the social graph API: [http://socialgraph-
resources.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/sample...](http://socialgraph-
resources.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/samples/exploreapi.html)

------
olalonde
What I still can't understand is why Google's top bar's style isn't consistent
across pages.

<http://maps.google.com/>

<https://profiles.google.com/u/0/>

<https://groups.google.com/>

~~~
ralx
I guess they're updating incrementally across their sites

------
jhuckestein
This seems to be a part of the upcoming social product. IMO the Google brand
does not work well with social. No matter how well they execute this product,
it will still feel too "efficient".

P.S.: Looks like they invested in eye-candy. try changing your profile picture
for an example.

------
chapel
For some reason the new profiles don't render correctly in Chrome. It just
shows a white page with nothing on it that is much longer than the actual
profile page is. Not only that if you view source, it is all there.

I am running Chrome 11.0.686.1 dev on OS X 10.6

~~~
tonfa
The dev channel of Chrome has lots of issues (e.g. gmail has problems too).

~~~
chapel
I know it has issues, but for me Gmail is fine. The version before the one I
was using displays the profiles fine. So who knows.

------
Bvalmont
How is this going to affect search results when someone googles my name ? This
could be very useful because I have a very common name and it would be nice to
get bumped up a bit because I have a google profile.

------
Rariel
It's one thing to want to have a formal profile for when you're googled. It's
another to have your buzz attached to it. They want buzz to catch on so badly.

~~~
Andrex
You can hide the Buzz tab.

------
zitterbewegung
I am wondering how they figured out where I lived? Geolocation API with common
patterns?

------
ENOTTY
That looks exactly like Facebook, even to the photo timeline thing at the top.

~~~
seancron
I think the reason profile pages tend to use the same layout is because it's
an established design pattern now. People already know what to expect when
they see a page with that layout.

Edit: Also, Google profiles have had that photo timeline for a while. They
added it months before Facebook added it.

~~~
ENOTTY
Oh I didn't know Facebook aped Google.

------
adrianwaj
How can I set its display language to English?

------
dudurocha
I think this is a bit useless when we see the facebook Api, and you can find
yourself in the searches.

~~~
seancron
Do you mind explaining more fully how this is useless?

I'm sure there are many people who don't have a Facebook account who have a
Google account. Such people could use this to create their own profile page.
Also, while you can make your Facebook profile searchable if you wish to,
Google profiles will likely be given special priority and placement. Not to
mention the social search features Google is working on using profiles.

~~~
NovaDesu
I for one don't have a facebook and will never make one. I really welcome this
change and will be using the google profiles.

~~~
jamesgeck0
It seems like this offers even less privacy and more scrapeability than
Facebook. Can you elaborate on why you prefer it?

