Friendster was one of the first in the field of social networking, followed by MySpace, Hyves, and now Facebook. Who will be the next big player on the list? In the past, Google has tried everything in the field of social networking to be innovative. It is safe to say that Google Wave and Google Buzz were not a great success. It was fun for the first week, but now virtually no one uses it anymore. But Google is going to this year (March/April 2011 according to Mashable.com) come back into the market with a bang with a new service.
The secret project that Google has been working on for some time was initially named “Google Me”. After that, it was called “Emerald Sea” for a while, and now it is called “Google +1”. It is not yet clear whether this will be the final name. Exactly what the new Google +1 project entails remains very unclear because Google is unwilling to say much about it. But one thing is certain: it has something to do with social networking.
Social networking is, of course, a rather broad and big word that allows you to go in any direction. According to the CEO Eric Schmidt From Google, it will not become a new service, but a social layer on top of Google's current services. In fact, this is already being done to some extent; social search is becoming increasingly integrated into search results, and Google Profiles received an update last week.
Google profiles
During last week's update, several options were added that you can fill in on your profile. Google now wants to know your current relationship status and whether you are looking for a date or perhaps even a relationship. Your profile picture has become a bit larger and you can create your own photo album. So, actually, it looks quite a lot like Facebook and LinkedIn. Will the new Google +1 project then become a way to Zuckerberg to beat?
Google + 1
Late last year, a screenshot of this new project was leaked. As you can tell by the word “CONFIDENTIAL”, it was therefore not intended for this to come out. In this screenshot There are two things that stand out: the new menu item “Loop” and the share button. Google Loop is what Google Groups is now, a kind of Facebook Fan Pages. Google Loop is described as follows:
The “Loop” name is also interesting because we've heard that a big part of +1 is groups, and those groups are apparently called “loops”. The idea is that as you add or remove people from these loops, they're either “in the loop” or “out of the loop”. Get it?
The share button is also new; no official statements have been released by Google regarding its function either. With a little imagination, you can probably come up with a few options for what this is intended for. Perhaps sharing search results within your own social graph? Or maybe not just search results, but everything within Google, such as Google news items or Google Maps markers.
Will Google win the battle in the social land?
Google has one major advantage: it has more data than Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter combined. Google currently has the most information about you, which allows them to best construct your social ID. Your social identity is becoming increasingly important on the web as the internet grows enormously.
Will there be important updates from Google in the coming months related to the Google +1 project? According to the latest rumors from Mashable.com Something is going to happen in March/April. Most of the information known so far about the Google +1 project is virtually all speculation from the world's top technology experts. What would you like to see in the field of Social and Google, or what do you think is going to happen?
Update 13-03-2011 17:00
There are rumors that Google on the tonight South by Southwest Interactive event Google Circle is launching. Is it finally happening after a long wait? Right now, it seems as if Silicon Valley is being turned upside down over a single message from @RWWThere is a lot of discussion on Twitter about the possible launch of Google Circles; http://twitter.com/#!/search/google%20circles
Update 13-03-2011 19:00
@googlesxsw We're not launching any products at#SXSW but we're doing plenty else. Join us for #H4ckers & 80s dancing today
http://goo.gl/yV4fP ( link )