Me Too?
The rumors of Google Me have re-surfaced the titanic struggle between Google and Facebook over social search. Google, having ignored the rise of social network star for too long, realized unfashionably late the importance of getting involved in this market.
The failure of Google buzz should have gave Google a sense of humility and understanding that it need to re-focus its resources. Alas, lack of humility usually goes hand in hand with hubris. And so, Google is about to launch a new variation of a social network called ‘Google Me’. Who else thinks it sounds like ‘Google Me too’?
Looking for a few good friends
I believe that social-network-challenged Google should approach this market in another way: Circumstantial social search. No, this is not Google Social Search. The idea is to complement Google search results with 1st and 2nd degree network friends who have a very good chance to answer a given question. Let’s say I want to visit New-Zealand and I’m looking for places to hang out. A circumstantial search results will show me a list of friends, or friends of friends, who were in New Zealand recently. The results will show me who that friend is, her relation to me, and why she was chosen for this search (example: a status message in Facebook ‘Just came back from NZ. Wow, that was gr8!!!’). Instead of a link to the status or user profile, Google will provide a click-to-call link, allowing users to talk about the subject.
Undoubtedly, Google has all the knowledge and resources to provide such a service. Combining search algorithms + recently acquired Aardvark + Google Voice/GTalk can yield such a service in a few months. Will they do it? probably. The question is, with ‘Facebook Questions’ service coming up soon, will it not be too late for Google.