Google Me: Can the biggest company on the internet stand up to Facebook?

July 2nd, 2010 Posted by joshuasinason in Business, Featured, Friends, News

Google has had little success trying to get a hand in the social media scene, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to stop trying. Google Buzz, their first attempt at creating a blogging network for fans, failed to live up to its name and faded away without much press. They’ve recently announced Google Me, a more direct attempt to take on the Facebook juggernaut. Some people say it’s surprising it took them so long; other say they should learn from their mistakes and realize they’re just isn’t room at the top to challenge the big dog.

In a nutshell Google Me is a social network that doesn’t have the restrictions that come with G-Mail like Google Buzz did. Other than what it doesn’t have, Google is playing it low-key and letting the speculation run rampant and spread word for them. All they are saying is that it will be a much simpler networking tool without all the games and spam messages. (Roughly the same thing Facebook said when they went up against MySpace.)

This would actually be Google’s third try at running a social network. The first try was way back in 2004 when Facebook was in its infancy. The Orkut caught on in Latin America but was a dud in the United States and Google Buzz was drowned out in complaints of privacy breaches and glitches that revealed private data. Of course you don’t get to be a company as big as Google without learning from your mistakes, right?

Google has had a habit hyping up their new products. Every year Google has a new and revolutionary product and sometimes that works in their favor and sometimes it doesn’t in the case of Google Buzz it just didn’t live up to its hype. As I said, this time Google is keeping quiet about exactly what Google Me is, preferring to let to build a groundswell by using sites like Wired. Com and G4tv to get people talking about what exactly what they have coming.

Google certainly learned the value of picking a good time to launch. Facebook has been getting some bad press recently for breaches in privacy and information exposing glitches. There’s even a movie coming out in the fall that could cause Facebook and the people behind it some headaches in the media (See trailer) If Google can spin Facebook’s bad press into good press for them this could be the break they’ve been waiting for.

So how does Facebook respond to all this? If I were their marketing wizard I would publicize the new privacy setting and talk about cracking down on spammers and bots. I would promote Facebook like they did back when they took on MySpace. They were the place to hold conversations, stay in touch with friends, and above all downplay all the bells and whistles that they’ve added over time and focus on the networking aspects.

One of the reason’s Facebook has been so successful is that it has shown a remarkable ability to adapt to what people want. When Twitter became a hit, Facebook quickly retooled their front page to assimilate with their ideas. If Google is going to beat Facebook it better do something that catches on quickly and surprises Facebook by doing something fairly innovative. They said Google Buzz would be revolutionary but it turned out to be just another version of 4-Square using your G-Mail account.

Google has said they will launch Google Me later this year. The odds are we’ll know pretty quickly whether or not it’s a success. A massive launch like this is either a hit right out of the gate or it’s nothing and there are only so many times Google can announce they are taking on social networking before people stop listening so this could be their last shot at it. As far as your own advertising dollars there could very well be a downturn in Facebook traffic as these privacy complaints pile up. If internet privacy becomes a big issue Facebook will most likely find themselves doing some major damage control. If Google Me can set itself apart from the rest it could be an interesting way to get your message out there.

news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-20009159-265.html

edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/social.media/06/28/facebook.attitude/?fbid=EcJX7RW-7kT

www.inrumor.com/in/all/will-google-me-compete-facebook/

mashable.com/2010/06/30/google-me-rumors/