
Evolution of a Facebook-Killer  - peter123
http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/chris-dannen/techwatch/evolution-facebook-killer
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Scriptor
So the fact that Google has a bunch of loosely connected tools that
hypothetically could form a social networking site if it was pushed a little
harder suddenly makes it a "Facebook-Killer"? Please, the strategies that this
article is suggesting would only make a Google's site a hacked-up clone of
Facebook. Even if they could find a way to unify all the different interfaces,
it wouldn't give Google anything new or different.

Facebook has messages, pictures, video, notes (not quite blogging, but good
enough), chat (again, not the best, but useful), and a good event system.
These aren't provided by apps, they come built-in with Facebook. On the other
hand, Google has a different app for each of their versions of these services.
Just because they set up a minimalist profile page doesn't change much.

Hey, here's an idea, can we break out of the mindset that everything has to
turn into a social network? Think hard, what else could Google do by
consolidating services? At the least, one meta-service that seamlessly
combines everything would be easier to market and manage. What makes a social
network different from simply a collection of profiles is that people have to
interact with it. They discuss topics. plan events, have fun. Well, the
services are already there, so it is possible for Google to track much of that
information. Personally, I'm a little intrigued by the insertion of the map,
maybe this will be a geo-based service, who knows?

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GavinB
The big distinction that a google social network has is that its internal
messaging system is real e-mail. Facebook relies on e-mail to keep users
updated if they don't log in. This means that social networking can be tied
directly into your usual workflow, rather than being a separate site that you
visit.

This change alone is a huge competitive advantage.

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tokenadult
"I, for one, would relish the opportunity to delete my Facebook account and go
all-in with [the Facebook killer]. Anyone else feel the same?"

~~~
gaius
You'd better hope that _everyone_ else feels the same, a social network
without all your friends on is a bit pointless.

~~~
RK
That was the fate of Friendster, MySpace, etc. So it's not unprecedented.

I've always been pretty lukewarm on social networking sites because they felt
like they were essentially AOL 2.0 (as others have stated). Hopefully in the
future something more analogous to the open web will come along.

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chunkyslink
I had a facebook account for about 2 days, 3 years ago. All these fucking
people started bothering me and trying to 'connect'. Look at the picture of me
drunk holding my ugly kid.

I've never fundamentally grasped this idea and find the whole thing intrusive
and desperate.

Maybe google can make a better job of it.

