I haven't seen the future, but they are planning to incorporate aspects from Facebook (Buzz was targetted to compete with Twitter), checkin services (Gowalla, Foursquare), and gaming services (Zynga).
Besides, I'm sure Google wants to get it right this time. They've been out of the social network party for too long now.
Thats the whole point. Nobody wants a Facebook with twitter and gowalla. I want Facebook to be facebook, gmail to be gmail and twitter to be twitter. In fact I want my reader to be reader too. I do not want it to become twitter
Google Me will not be necessarly a new social network but a way to leverage the real social network that Google users already have and integrate in what Google already offer.
When it comes to competition with facebook or Apple or Microsoft office applications, it has not lived up-to the expectations, which good news for facebook.
And, that doesn't mean they can take this product (Google Me) lite-ly. It's now or never for Google, therefore they'll try and give out their best (should wait and see whether their best is enough to dent facebook popularity). Google will come out strongly for sure and as Adam D'Angelo said, there are lot of people working on this project and social networking (I would say, bring down facebook's fame or eminence) tops their to-do list for this year.
Having said that, Competition - Google has not done any wonder, but Innovation (Google Earth, Search, Latitude, Maps etc.) they are best. Since they already have all the elements to create a good social networking site, it's just how best they can collaborate it. They have to think out of box, construct something extra-ordinary to attract current facebook users, which I am sure they are currently working on it. They might also call it as "Google One".
At this point of time there is nothing to be worried and break their heads for facebook engineers/developers and Mark, as people are not expecting anything extra from them, they have already delivered more than what we can ask for. Now it's worry time for Google, if they fail to impress audience this time, then they are out of market. Google's approach towards social networking will remain just for laugh's. The problem is we set high standards for Google which they are not able to reach.
And Buzz was something like Twitter. It is roumered that Google Me is one stop for gaming, videos (you tube), photo sharing (picassa), Latitude, Friend Feed, be integrated with all the Google products (gmail, Google docs, Picasa, Google checkout, Google products, Google voice and SEARCH etc). The user will be able to share a Google spreadsheet with the group "Work colleagues" for example. Shared content will be indexed and accessible during a Google search (if relevant). It will be able to deliver the message in the way preferred by the receiver of the message (ex: on the steam, by email, or by text message through Google voice
@anon the problem is in social networking space too much technology hardly sells. It alienates people. Look at twitter: it is as low tech as one social networking site can get. It works not because people want to tweet, or read the news in real time or they want to share knowledge but twitter is an ego massager. It gives people that super hero feeling and that is the USP there. Facebook is for friends and it does just that. Geni is for family and so on. Now would it work if one would mix facebook, twitter and geni ? Answer is a big NO! I would not want my parents to read all the "fucks" I write on my twitter stream and I certainly would not want the world to know my phone no. which I casually toss out to my friend.
This is the reason I see Google failing again: Trying to do too much, losing the USP(or not having one) and thinking cool technology===great product
There are couple of fundamental beliefs in industry.. 1. If there is one super duper popular product from a company, it doesn't mean anybody else coming up with a similar product is guaranteed failure. 2. None of the products in the market are perfect and the needs of the people are ever changing.
The above two points give rise to new products with innovation. And thats what Google is known for.
Failure of Buzz is not exactly failure, its just that they couldn't surpass Twitter. And we always expect Google to be No. 1, don't we?
Integration with other Google products. Ideally all of the ones on the dashboard with opt-in, but especially the collaborative ones like Wave. Privacy options that are minimalistic in interface. Even after the privacy fiasco I still find options on Facebook hidden at the bottom of the page under a graphic that takes up half the screen). I want an honest attempt at user control, with "private" as one of the choices on the first level of menus, unlike Facebook which hide it under customize. A standard, organized way to sort data. Facebook saw it and introduced pages for interests and activities, but their implementation is flawed and we're left with multiple pages about the same topic. Pages of the same topic need to be collapsed, and related topics need to be grouped. Also, the recent activity feed for each page need to be something more relevant than just a keyword search of the page's name. Allow me to add identity from other social networks, including custom defined ones (a la Profile and Buzz) Lists and Filters for all updates, including those off-site ones. Note that by lists I mean grouping of contacts, and by filters I mean grouping of data, we should be able to choose our preference in data organization. A simpler but richer system for organizing events: Less clicks by default, but with features from Meetup: recurrence, location information, etc. (or simply integration with Meetup but please do not use their horrendous UI). Google Analytics on the Buzz This button. Google Trends on my contacts. More relevant ads. Those on Facebook never interested me one bit.
@Arya & fawkes, Google Romance (Beta): By definition Beta software is not finished and is known to have bugs, perhaps even serious ones.
Dear all commentators As predicted google me aka google+ seems to going towards fail whale. Initial indicators are pointing towards a fast declining traffic. http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/15/raise-your-hand-if-youre-still-using-google/
17 comments:
I haven't seen the future, but they are planning to incorporate aspects from Facebook (Buzz was targetted to compete with Twitter), checkin services (Gowalla, Foursquare), and gaming services (Zynga).
Besides, I'm sure Google wants to get it right this time. They've been out of the social network party for too long now.
Let's see what happens.
Thats the whole point. Nobody wants a Facebook with twitter and gowalla. I want Facebook to be facebook, gmail to be gmail and twitter to be twitter. In fact I want my reader to be reader too. I do not want it to become twitter
BTW I am sure it will fail. If it doesn't bomb I will buy you a beer! (or may be 10)
Add one more to the list of google fails - Google Romance. Few have heard about it. http://www.google.com/romance/faq.html#10
Arey aise waste karne ki nahi hoti hai!
lo delete maar diya :P
Google Me will not be necessarly a new social network but a way to leverage the real social network that Google users already have and integrate in what Google already offer.
wasn't that Buzz
When it comes to competition with facebook or Apple or Microsoft office applications, it has not lived up-to the expectations, which good news for facebook.
And, that doesn't mean they can take this product (Google Me) lite-ly. It's now or never for Google, therefore they'll try and give out their best (should wait and see whether their best is enough to dent facebook popularity). Google will come out strongly for sure and as Adam D'Angelo said, there are lot of people working on this project and social networking (I would say, bring down facebook's fame or eminence) tops their to-do list for this year.
Having said that, Competition - Google has not done any wonder, but Innovation (Google Earth, Search, Latitude, Maps etc.) they are best. Since they already have all the elements to create a good social networking site, it's just how best they can collaborate it. They have to think out of box, construct something extra-ordinary to attract current facebook users, which I am sure they are currently working on it. They might also call it as "Google One".
At this point of time there is nothing to be worried and break their heads for facebook engineers/developers and Mark, as people are not expecting anything extra from them, they have already delivered more than what we can ask for. Now it's worry time for Google, if they fail to impress audience this time, then they are out of market. Google's approach towards social networking will remain just for laugh's. The problem is we set high standards for Google which they are not able to reach.
And Buzz was something like Twitter. It is roumered that Google Me is one stop for gaming, videos (you tube), photo sharing (picassa), Latitude, Friend Feed, be integrated with all the Google products (gmail, Google docs, Picasa, Google checkout, Google products, Google voice and SEARCH etc). The user will be able to share a Google spreadsheet with the group "Work colleagues" for example. Shared content will be indexed and accessible during a Google search (if relevant). It will be able to deliver the message in the way preferred by the receiver of the message (ex: on the steam, by email, or by text message through Google voice
@anon the problem is in social networking space too much technology hardly sells. It alienates people. Look at twitter: it is as low tech as one social networking site can get. It works not because people want to tweet, or read the news in real time or they want to share knowledge but twitter is an ego massager. It gives people that super hero feeling and that is the USP there.
Facebook is for friends and it does just that. Geni is for family and so on.
Now would it work if one would mix facebook, twitter and geni ? Answer is a big NO! I would not want my parents to read all the "fucks" I write on my twitter stream and I certainly would not want the world to know my phone no. which I casually toss out to my friend.
This is the reason I see Google failing again: Trying to do too much, losing the USP(or not having one) and thinking cool technology===great product
There are couple of fundamental beliefs in industry..
1. If there is one super duper popular product from a company, it doesn't mean anybody else coming up with a similar product is guaranteed failure.
2. None of the products in the market are perfect and the needs of the people are ever changing.
The above two points give rise to new products with innovation. And thats what Google is known for.
Failure of Buzz is not exactly failure, its just that they couldn't surpass Twitter. And we always expect Google to be No. 1, don't we?
I think google romance was yet another prank by google, wasn't it?
Just like their 'print photo delivery' etc.
@piyush
Integration with other Google products. Ideally all of the ones on the dashboard with opt-in, but especially the collaborative ones like Wave.
Privacy options that are minimalistic in interface. Even after the privacy fiasco I still find options on Facebook hidden at the bottom of the page under a graphic that takes up half the screen). I want an honest attempt at user control, with "private" as one of the choices on the first level of menus, unlike Facebook which hide it under customize.
A standard, organized way to sort data. Facebook saw it and introduced pages for interests and activities, but their implementation is flawed and we're left with multiple pages about the same topic. Pages of the same topic need to be collapsed, and related topics need to be grouped. Also, the recent activity feed for each page need to be something more relevant than just a keyword search of the page's name.
Allow me to add identity from other social networks, including custom defined ones (a la Profile and Buzz)
Lists and Filters for all updates, including those off-site ones. Note that by lists I mean grouping of contacts, and by filters I mean grouping of data, we should be able to choose our preference in data organization.
A simpler but richer system for organizing events: Less clicks by default, but with features from Meetup: recurrence, location information, etc. (or simply integration with Meetup but please do not use their horrendous UI).
Google Analytics on the Buzz This button.
Google Trends on my contacts.
More relevant ads. Those on Facebook never interested me one bit.
@Arya & fawkes, Google Romance (Beta): By definition Beta software is not finished and is known to have bugs, perhaps even serious ones.
@Ashvani, I second that! Let's hope for the BEST!
http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/04/wave-goodbye-to-google-wave
http://pranjan.blogspot.com/2009/10/google-wave-is-failure.html
Dear all commentators
As predicted google me aka google+ seems to going towards fail whale. Initial indicators are pointing towards a fast declining traffic. http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/15/raise-your-hand-if-youre-still-using-google/
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