Is Google Creating a Facebook Killer?

Google already has data centers all over the world, and they already have programmers on the payroll. Google probably has more servers then micorsoft (just guessing).

There no reason why google can not get into the social networking market with ease. They have the resources, and they have the people to get the job done. Its just a matter of development and deployment.

 

I was just thinking this yesterday. Don't forget about Wave, most already have

Google is a great company that makes a lot of top notch things. The one thing they seem to fail at is creating tools that strike a personal cord with people. All of their stuff is uniform and very corporate looking, and I'd expect Google Me to be no different. Facebook has a personality, Myspace has a personality - Google Me is probably going to look like Wave/Gmail/etc - white and gray gradients, no real branding in place, etc. That's why I have little faith in its ability to compete with Facebook.

Just remember the hype over Google Wave. It was supposed to be the greatest thing on earth. People fought like animals to get an invite. Currently, I still don't know anyone who uses it.

 

I wish google had acted sooner, because now it might be too late to come anywhere near to Facebook - and competition is always healthy. They've effectively handed Facebook a monopoly until now, and it's strange they've stayed quiet on social for so long (bar buzz and wave). When was it they tried to buy Friendster, back in about 2003? They should have created their own version way back then before Facebook reached critical mass (or indeed had even started).
Google underestimated social, hindsight is 20/20, but they risk losing serious eyeballs going forward if they don't act soon, especially now that Facebook are taking their first serious steps into search

 

It is a strange idea that anyone would take over from facebook in the short term. So many people constantly complain about certain features of facebook but as it is free people put up with it.
If anyone can do it Google with its resources I suppose could. If Google could find a more streamline and interactive service or something which really does draw together a lot of what Google has to offer then maybe.
I know it wouldn't be the same but I remember the mass exodus from myspace, you could see your friends leaving day by day.

 

They're not going to beat Facebook at all. Especially considering the fact that most teens (usually the target market) will think that Google is just a search engine and that they're not going to waste their time signing up with another Google flop. Google should focus on their search engine, not trying to take over other markets like Social Networks. Buzz is just what it is, a Buzz. It's not popular at all.

Yugo,

 

Anything is possible. Back in the 80's as PC's started to appear in all offices Lotus1-2-3 was the juggernaut of spreadsheets. Microsoft came in and ousted Lotus 1-2-3. WordPerfect was the defacto word processing program used in businesses - Microsoft Word replaced that. With a lot of money and market share, today's mainstays can be overcome. MySpace saw it happen quickly, although not quite the same type of situation. Go back and look at forum comments about Facebook a couple of years ago. MySpace users felt there was no way it could be overtaken.

 

Already they have a dead google killer(google +).. i dont think they ll attempt again.. no signs of it..

 

This was an interesting thread to read.
However, I don't understand that why people use facebook anyways?
They have so many limits, the basic friendlist limit is 5000, and that is the main core feature...

I too use facebook, but only because lot of other people are there, and its a good place to promote my websites in groups for free...
Other than that, I think that even their newsfeed section sucks, the basic page you see when you login...

 

Google buzz doesn't create this kind of action at all.

 

Rumor keeps going rumor. Google Buzz not playing that role at all.

 

@sarahk
Right now I don't have 5000 friends, still at 2000 only.
Lot of celebs/activists/companies would have more than a million followers I guess...
Facebook friends are not really friends (no need to pick them by face), but are more like a contact/follower who can see my posts.

I understand facebook tried to solve this problem by introducing "pages".
Problem with pages is that posts made on pages are on second priority when facebook shows you your newsfeed.
So if 50 of your "friends" have recently posted something, and 50 pages that you are subscribed to, they also made a post, then you will never see the post of those pages on your newsfeed.
I must be subscribed to 15-20 pages, news, jokes, stock markets, etc,
and I never see those posts on my newsfeed.
Not even the post made by me on my self-created page shows up...
If I update my timeline, that shows up.
I noticed this behaviour of newsfeed when I was at 500-600 friends.
Same is with groups too.
I have to open the group's newsfeed page to see what is happening there, does not automatically shows on my newsfeed.

Next, if you and a friend are both in a particular group, and you make a new post in that group, then your friend gets a notification.
Does not happens with pages.

 

That hand picking thing happens when something goes wrong in your account, like someone tries to hack it, or there is some suspicious activity.
There are alternatives to that from what I remember.
When I was asked to do this once, I clicked the link to verify by phone SMS.

 

If you ask me, facebook is "stupid" for using this as a "verification" check.
Does facebook really believes that someone who has 5k members in their friendlist, can handpick just 5 out of these at random?

They developed the technology to recognize faces, then thought:
how can we use it, how can we use it...
Then some stupid project manager came up with this idea, and other stupid ones clapped!

How these companies work so hard, so hard, to kill themselves, will always amaze me!

 

Its upto you how much private info you want to disclose on facebook. I do not display anything except profession and some quotes.
My facebook account is not at all personal or private. Even the timeline is publically open for all to read.
I prefer to keep my personal and private info to myself, not to be posted on these useless websites. Will not even give them a photo of mine to use as profile photo...

For trips and everything, truly telling you, nobody cares which airport I clicked a selfi at.
Likewise, I don't care where you clicked a selfi...
I really hate it when people tag me in a party photo or in some other photos they uploaded.
So we were at a party together, you took a photo, now keep it in your phone's dustbin. Nobody's interested in what we were doing last night...

@sarahk
I just realized that you are giving me a completely different viewpoint of facebook users, something very different from mine.
Thanks for this!