Rumor: Google building “Google Me” Facebook-killer web app?
Looks like Kevin Rose’s comments about Google building a “Facebook killer” social-networking website called “Google Me” just got a bit more credence. Adam D’Angelo, Facebook’s former CTO, commented on his new website Quora that “Google Me” is indeed “not a rumor. This is a real project.” He goes on to say the following:
- “They realized that Buzz wasn’t enough and that they need to build out a full, first-class social network. They are modeling it off of Facebook.
- Unlike previous attempts (before Buzz at least), this is a high-priority project within Google.
- They had assumed that Facebook’s growth would slow as it grew, and that Facebook wouldn’t be able to have too much leverage over them, but then it just didn’t stop, and now they are really scared.”
Assuming these rumors are true, is it a simple matter of Google being too late to the ballgame? Of course, it’s a great deal easier for Google to create a new social networking website than for other companies since millions upon millions of us already have accounts with the search engine giant thanks to services like Gmail.
However as proven by their recent ventures in the area of social networking/microblogging/online communications (Orkut, Buzz, Wave), just because Google builds it doesn’t necessarily mean people will come. Of course things could change if Facebook continues to piss off its members so who knows?
It’s ironic isn’t it? Google is reacting to the world around them much in the way Microsoft reacted to the world around them when Google came on the scene earlier this decade. It’s not fun playing catch up is it Google?
For what it’s worth, I’ll probably stick with Facebook for the simple fact that I don’t need more than one large social networking website to worry about.
