Eagerly Awaiting the Launch of Google Me

Google is king of most things related to Internet-based services and products, but of social networking, not so much. However, in Google's attempt gain dominance in the social networking market and to rival Facebook, which has captured over 500 million users, “Google Me” is slated to be released in fall 2010.  Google Me will allow users to access information they have created on other sites like Twitter, Flickr, and so forth. Eric Schmidt, Google’s Chief Executive Officer, reports that with Google Me the company will add another “social layer” this fall season.

Google’s Orkut was a disappointing attempt as a social networking website back in 2004. Google Buzz was another social networking platform launched in February 2009 that allowed photo sharing and comments, but had privacy issues and less than impressive results. Both Orkut and Buzz require users to hold a Google account, which discouraged some people from using these services.  Positioned for release in the fall of 2010 is another social networking product from Google called “Google Me.”

What will Google Me do?

  1. YouTube will incorporate more social networking elements
  2. Allow people to play online social Games
  3. What else? That information has not yet been shared.

Existing Google social platforms:

Google Profiles: allows a user to create a personal info page.
Google Buzz: allows personal status updates.
Latitude: allows a user to share location information.
Google Social Search: once signed into Google, at the bottom of the page you can see “results from people in your social circle.” View profiles, blog articles, tweets, content from friends, images from Picasa and more.

While past platforms have not taken off to the level Google had hoped for, they do encompass important social networking features. Still, these various Google platforms lack a central hub that ties them all together. Will Google solve this problem by taking the positive elements of their existing social websites and morph them together into Google Me?

We eagerly await Google’s launch of Google Me later this year.

If you need help with your social networking strategies, please contact RezStream today at 866.360.8210 or sales@temp.rezstream.com.

Published: September 27, 2010