Google Enters Social Networking Arena… Again
Google has entered the social networking arena again with their Google+ service, currently invite only. Will it work this time and can they catch Facebook?
The last time Google tried to launch a social network it was called Google Buzz. Launched with a big fanfare, they infuriated their customers by automatically signing them up.
Even worse, the Google Buzz network had some privacy issues which meant that not only were you automatically signed up, you could also come a cropper when it opened up things to others in your network that you didn’t necessarily want to share. Even the FTC got involved concerned that it may have violated it’s own privacy policies.
What was supposed to be a new phase in Google’s business quickly turned into a PR nightmare and subsequently never got off the ground.
More recently there was the Google +1 button launch (you can +1 this article for instance, you can see the +1 button on the left), which in hindsight can been seen as phase one for their new effort, launched with a small fanfare (no press conference, no speeches, just a blog post) last week called Google+.
It was an invite only affair and it seems at the time of writing, demand has meant that even invites are currently closed.
So, tick one in the box for Google PR. Create demand and (Google) buzz for your new product.
So, what is Google+ ?
At it’s heart is a grouping function that they call Circles (as in social), which allows you to group people into smaller sets of friends allowing a more precise type of sharing and interaction.
They also have something called Hangouts where you can pop into a video chat much like you might in a bar or pub.
With the Huddle feature they add the ability for group messaging across your social circles.
Can it catch Facebook?
Well it certainly has the muscle power to compete and as you can see, this time it’s a well thought out product. It sounds like there are promising signals coming from the 1st users of the system and meanwhile, Facebook are facing problems of their own.
To alot of people, Facebook is a platform for people that they used to know, LinkedIn are people that they do know and Twitter is for people that they would like to know. Will Google+ cross all of these boundaries in one giant leap?
Only time will tell and in an ever moving environment, Facebook have hinted that they have a big announcement to make of their own next week…watch this space.
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