Google Me: Google To Launch A 'Facebook Killer'?

Facebook's recently-announced Open Graph search feature has been likened to a "Google killer."

But Google may be bringing the fight to Facebook, too.

According to a tweet from Digg founder Kevin Rose, Google is preparing to launch a rival social networking service called "Google Me."

Rose wrote in a tweet:

Ok, umm, huge rumor: Google to launch facebook competitor very soon "Google Me", very credible source

What is Google planning? And how would a new "Facebook competitor" tie in with Google's existing social networking services, Orkut and Google Buzz?

The Next Web speculates that Google might be planning an integration of the two, which could potentially give it an initial user base of 200 million people--already half as big as Facebook, with its 400 million members:

If Google truly is getting into a war with Facebook, and there's no reason to believe that it isn't, then the combination of both Orkut and Buzz would be the obvious choice.

Knowing that a Google account is required to use Orkut, and a Gmail account is required for Buzz, we can safely assume that we're looking at roughly 200 million users to any service that would combine the two. This number could sway one direction or the other, as a Google account does not equate to a Gmail account, but I'd say that 200 million is a solid guess.

Chris Saad speculated in a tweet that the "Facebook killer" referenced by Rose may be an "upgrade" to Google's "Google Profiles" feature. Louis Gray adds, "I don't know if Google Me exists or not. I would not be surprised if it does, but I also would not be surprised if this simply relates to the continued evolution of Profiles, with [Rick Klau, who recently joined the Google Profiles group] and team on watch."

What features would you want to see in a social network launched by Google?

Comments

[Richard Gerber]

01:03 PM on 07/02/2010

An innovation that changes the course of humanity? Filled with intrigue. http://Googles.me something about making operation code named The Infinite Play and something about Surfing the wave, don't get pounded by it. http://GooWave.com

[rufnnuts]

06:36 PM on 06/29/2010

@ Bianca Bosker - Facebook killer, iphone killer, google killer - you "tech writers" have a very limited vocabulary when it comes to writing about competing technology. It's a little more complicated than just killing something. Facebook took several years to become dominant in the social media space, mainly due to the inept former dominant competitor, myspace. Google has shown a willingness to experiment and play around in the sandbox. Whatever comes next from Google it doesn't have to be an overnight "killer". I wouldn't write them off in the short time it takes you to come up with a snappy new killer-headline.

[Brutus76]

11:29 AM on 06/29/2010

Didn't they say the same thing about Google Wave? Google what? Exactly.

[Murphdogg]

11:17 AM on 06/29/2010

Didn't they already do this? What the heck was google buzz? The more social networking sights there are, the less value they have. Sorry google, too late to the party.

[takaq]

10:53 AM on 06/29/2010

Certainly the marketplace for social networking is getting competitive. However, in the workplace, it is still unclear whether social networking tools are distractions or they help boost productivity. Researchers at the University of Maryland are conducting a national survey on workplace social networking. Does social networking help you do a better job? Take the survey to find out: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SocNet

[zero0zero]

09:09 AM on 06/29/2010

What I want is a option to BLOCK EVERY SINGLE APP I DON'T HAVE INSTALLED IN 1 CLICK.

[SuPaMan]

06:38 PM on 06/28/2010

Who would not want their personal posts, pics (picasa), docs, email, calendar, friends list, search history, cats name, address, satellite image of home, street view of home, wifi password (via google streetview van), phone service(nexus one), books and voice mail all in one place with one company with a history of privacy issues.

sign me up please

[darcdante]

05:21 PM on 06/28/2010

So we're going back to the days of "My Yahoo!" just with a friends list?

[Guitar63]

05:18 PM on 06/28/2010

. . . Pfft Facebook is on the downslope. To make googleme is to attack a dieing market. Google on the other hand could lose a lot seemingly. Google will have to come up with a different strategy here. . .

[Ronnie Avatar Dixon]

04:31 PM on 06/28/2010

Facebook as a monopoly on social networking. I highly doubt Google will create a "Facebook Killer".

[carallen]

02:59 PM on 06/28/2010

Great just what we need, more social networking. Gag.

[PaiaGirl]

03:04 PM on 06/28/2010

But better we break FB's monopoly.

I resisted going on Facebook because it is simply a data-mining operation so that they can sell your demographics and contact info to advertisers.

But my clients are all gung-ho and I was forced to join in order to support them.

Hopefully google can grab the FB feeds and consolidate them on Google and I can leave FB.

But then again, Google for all its great stuff makes a hash of their blogspot feed (almost unusable) so I'm not holding my breath.

[havenner]

04:53 PM on 06/28/2010

FB doesn't sell demographics and contact info to advertisers. What they do is take ads and target them to their users based upon privately stored demographic and personal information. The advertiser has no access to that information. Google actually stores far more private information, such as browsing history and location, and does the same thing as Facebook, but with search ads.

[quietus28]

03:18 PM on 06/28/2010

Precisely my thinking. One more meme for me to ignore.

[Tochi Opara]

01:39 PM on 06/28/2010

It won't happen. Want to know why?1) Facebook already occupies the need for social networking for most people.
2) Most people don't want to have multiple networks just to socialize on the web just like you wouldn't want to have multiple identities to socialize in real life.
3) For most people, most of their friends are on Facebook and moving over to the Google "social network" would require converting MANY of them which can take a while.

What Google should aim at is making a "different" kind of social network. Kinda like how Twitter emerged and people thought why would I join. It's just a Facebook status website but as time went on, it developed it's on identity. Maybe Google can make a photo social website but with a twist? I don't know Just throwing ideas out there.

[nicnic]

02:04 PM on 06/28/2010

thing is that with a buzz/orkut/profile mix- you might -work- and get things -done-. not only socialize and gossip.
that could be the way to get in

[Joey Y]

04:02 PM on 06/28/2010

I think the difference here is, business advertise on facebook sometimes via a fan page, but many business use Google Docs to actually CONDUCT business, as well as gmail. That would give Google a serious edge.

[David Speakman]

04:20 PM on 06/28/2010

Ten years ago, most people used to say the same about AOL for social and Yahoo for search.

[optimism87]

01:34 PM on 06/28/2010

It has been proven that Google does not have a niche in social networking. Google Wave was an attempt, but it failed.

[TAFL]

01:46 PM on 06/28/2010

Interesting. I use Wave and it's never been offered up as a social networking service--it's a collaboration tool for group projects.

[mikeyaz17]

01:33 PM on 06/28/2010

a feature named "leave me the f*ck alone" would be a GREAT one

[Chicago48]

02:02 PM on 06/28/2010

I Love this ^ Me too. I don't want to twit, tweet, openID anybody. Every site I go to they have these competing social networks and I don't care to be part of any of it.

[nicnic]

02:05 PM on 06/28/2010

!!!! :D:D:D

[Ramkshrestha]

01:23 PM on 06/28/2010

Let them continue their war. More the war in the technology, better for public due to competition.

[vigilantmind]

07:00 PM on 06/28/2010

Agreed, though I don't like the idea of everything having to be a "[competitor] killer." The world is big enough for Apple and Windows, iPhone and Android, Facebook and Google, etc.