Google Struggles To Get The Social Web

Posted by on Oct 22, 2010 | 2 Comments

There should be an image here!Google does a lot of things right. Providing me with accurate search results, offering their users plenty of cool options ranging from email solutions to office suite products on the Web just to name a few. But one thing they have been completely unable to really nail down is the ability to make a go of social networking, Google Style.

The least Google could do is admit that unless they have a very specific need to do so, re-creating the wheel (social network) may be a bad idea. Instead, I see Google having more success with concepts like integrating existing social networks into Google organic results. This, unlike Buzz and other silly attempts, has a future I think we can all get behind.

As for Google trying the next big social media experiment, I wouldn’t hold out a lot of hope for it being too much of a success. I mean as it is, I am kind of done with only relying on two networks in Facebook and Twitter. Adding a third or fourth network to my mix, is simply annoying. I just don’t see any added value having Google invest this kind of money into things like this.

  • http://www.comfied.com Eric Kotonya

    Google has a good chance at getting social media right organically because Facebook and Twitter belong into same family of Social Media – they are both high context environments – where I have to connect/ befriend someone before I can get into and participate in their social circles.

    Google on the other hand, has built a low context platform search engine – there is no fear of offending anyone culturally or morally with what I type into the Google search box.

    There definitely space and demand for a large low-context online social environment – with no gates, and no gatekeepers, and no limit on circles of influence – just like the Google search engine – where information value, not personalities and egos – is the connection currency.

  • http://www.justenrobertson.com Justen Robertson

    Tying the networks together into a single useful interface is probably where they could shine, if they cared to. I also hate going to multiple sites to check on things; hell, I’d like my RSS feeds to fit right inline with my friend’s status updates from a bazillion different networks.