Speculation on a Possible Social Network from Google

July 12th, 2010

Many sources are stating that Google is possibly attempting to make a competing social network that will be able to take down existing ones like Facebook. Key players in social networking and media such as Digg founder Kevin Rose are saying that it is possible and soon. Google is known for their exploits in attempting the social networking path in the past with services such as Google Buzz, which was supposed to be a competitor against Twitter.

Kevin tweeted about the definite nature that Google is in fact creating a social network to go after Facebook. It is no rumor according to him. The icing on the cake? Soon after Kevin Rose tweeted that Google was going to create a service called “Google Me,” someone (no names), got ahold of Kevin and requested that he takes the tweet down. Take a guess at who that was (it was Google…).

The service under speculation is called “Google Me” and sounds very much like a social networking type of service. Under further speculation though, Google Me may only be an upgrade to an existing service such as Google Profiles which is a specialized profile that will be used to route traffic done on people name searches on Google which help others to find the information about a person that is provided by the person themselves.

Although it may be difficult for Google to really create such a social networking service, they do have the money and resources to make it a reality. They will also have a wide user base which will be ready to take advantage of the service when it does go live and many companies, people and organizations will jump on the bandwagon to take the vanity names before others do. Google could certainly make a wide impact on social networking and social media if they take the time to perfect their approach.

Supposedly there are a ton of people at Google who are working feverishly to get this product out the door. The only concern I have is that they are rushing the idea so much it will be incomplete or feel rushed. Google has a way of doing things that is very specific, and I hope they throw that out the door some what. They need to have a fresh UI on top of Google Me and make it easier and safer than Facebook and they might have a winner on their hands. If not, it is just another failed attempt.

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