Google Makes Another Play for the Social Web

The article is about the attempts of Google to create a social network. In the modern world Google represents a successful search system in many countries. Will it also create the connections between people that are making it social?
Google’s latest attempt is Google+. It is being developed for more than a year and there are big expectations considering the product. Google+ is now offered to a select group of journalists and analysts who will be able to share photos, links and status updates.
According to the article, “The major difference between Facebook and Google+ is that instead of having a massive friend list, users collect each other into groups, such as family, work and friends, called “circles””. As well on Google+ there are no friends, people can view updates without sharing their own.
As stated in the article, “Google+ follows the search company’s failed attempts at the social web — Buzz and Orkut – and could be a huge deal for Google if people are willing to participate in yet another social network.” That is why I am not sure if Google+ will be as popular as it is expected. I think that the leaders of the social networks will still be Twitter and Facebook, as they attract considerable amount of people all over the world.
It should be noted that the article is interesting and analyzes the attempts of Google to build its own successful social network. I found interesting the statement in the article: “Google+ will give Google a place for users to create their own content – the stuff we’re used to because of Facebook — such as user conversations, their photos and the links they share, plus group text messaging and video chat. Since it belongs to Google, it will all be searchable and monetizable – just the way Google likes it.”
I can say that I agree that “social has never been Google’s bag”. Google has many successful and unique projects, brand names and indispensable programs for people all over the world- YouTube, Google Search and Google Maps.
Even CEO admits that it will be challenging to compete with the existing social networks. “It would take a seismic shift for people to take their social stuff to Google,” said Deep Focus CEO and founder Ian Schafer. As well, one of the biggest implications for Google+ is mobile.
Many people do not believe in Google+ probably because of the previous Google failures with the social networks. In my opinion, Google should not try to compete with the existing social networks, because people are fully involved in them already, and they will not want to create plenty of accounts in all social networks present in the web because of some additional functions. Of course there will be fans of Google+ that will maybe leave other social networks and fully devote their time to communication via Google+. However, I think that it would be better if Google concentrated on some innovative issues that would truly change the world as other Google projects. Google is a giant in the business and it should reconsider its direction, because while trying to be competitive in social networking, the company may miss important and perspective opportunities in creation of the truly innovative products.



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