Google has revealed some information about its latest try to get into the social game and be a worthy competitor for Facebook. Even though Google is a much larger company with a lot more profit than Facebook, its main fear should be that all activity of users will take place behind the closed walls of Facebook. This way all this activity will not be visible to Google search users.
There’s a lot that can be said about Google and its efforts to set up social media services or features. From Orkut to Wave and Buzz the results have varied from mediocre to miserable failure. Now Google has presented Google+, a place where multiple social features come together. Some highlights:
- Circles: smaller groups of people (family, friends, work, etc.) so you can just share information with this list.
- Activity stream: which supposedly looks very much like Facebook
- Sparks: Search the social activities
- Instant Upload: have your photos on your Android or iPhone sent to Google+, ready to share with people
- Hangout: video chatting for up to 10 people. Set up a chat and have other people drop in and watch Youtube videos
You can find more details on the Google+ website: http://www.google.com/+/ Wired has an excellent piece by Steven Levy who has walked around the + project for the past year an has more about the motivation of the project. The next quote is from this piece.
Vic Gundotra, Social VP of Google:“We’re transforming Google itself into a social destination at a level and scale that we’ve never attempted — orders of magnitude more investment, in terms of people, than any previous project.”
My thoughts
- I have been waiting for a central hub for Google’s social tools. It’s nice that you try to bake in some social components in other services such as Gmail and Reader, but I think it is very confusing if you don’t have a central overview.
- The circles are very smart. This is something Facebook really lacks. It makes it very easy to be in control of what you share and with whom. Big lesson learned from Buzz I think.
- What is the connection with other social tools and Google services? Will the photo part integrate with Picasa? How does Buzz fit into this? Will they stop development of it or will it be incorporated (I say incorporate for people who want that). Hangout looks a lot like Gtalk, what’s the connection there? How will Reader Shared items and the +1 button work with Google+? It would be a real strong point if Google would use + to create some order in the chaos and have a clear social proposition for users.
- Some services in + have a lot of potential to replace current success stories, especially with mobile integration (which is a big part in + I think). Send updates to people in a circle from your phone. Check in when you are visiting a location or ask your friends for recommendations (using the sparks). If Hangout works on your phone, no need to call regularly any more.
As always it’s now about execution and getting users. I have signed up to get a beta account so I’m very curious how this will continue. It looks like a more serious and better executed effort than the previous attempts and I expect it will get the support an effort it deserves.
