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“Google Me” is Probably Already Bigger Than Facebook

Can Google Finally Get Social Media Right?

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By · September 22, 2010 · 73 Comments

The world discovered a little bit more about this mysterious "Google Me" project this week, when Googlers, including CEO Eric Schmidt opened up (just a little bit) at the company’s Zeitgeist event. 

The main thing that has been revealed is that Google Me will not be a new social network from Google to try and compete with Facebook, but rather a "social layer" added to existing Google products. If you think about it, this strategy makes more sense, as Google already has many of the features of a great social network in its various properties. As I’ve said over and over again, integration among these is the key, and "Google Me" just might turn out to be that integration that connects Google’s offerings, effectively making Google itself the social network. 

Who has the competitive edge? Facebook or Google? Share your thoughts here. 

Michael Arrington at TechCrunch was able to pick up one specific detail from unnamed "sources who’ve worked with Google on the product". They say that Google Me will produce an activity stream generated by all Google products, and that Google Buzz has been rewritten to be the host of it all. 

I’m guessing the existing Google Profiles, which already host the Google Buzz content will be central. 

Nick O’Neill at AllFacebook thinks photos and videos are going to be key elements in the competition between Google and Facebook.  He writes, "Between tagging and the feed exposure, photos account for the largest percentage of Facebook users’ time on site. While video is also increasing, photos were responsible for most of Facebook’s initial growth. In fact Facebook Photos now has more market share than all the competitors combined (including Google-owned Picasa). Google also clearly has another massive weapon in their arsenal: YouTube. The video site is by far the most popular of all video sites in the world."

"YouTube is so popular that it ranks just behind Facebook in Alexa’s ranking of the most popular online sites," he adds. "YouTube is also a relatively social experience to begin with, however there is most definitely plenty of room to grow."

YouTube is easily the greatest asset Google has in terms of social media. You may recall that YouTube began requiring all users to have a Google account. That’s no coincidence, I’m sure. 

So let’s compare Google (as one big social network) to Facebook, feature by feature.

Facebook has the news feed. Google is reportedly working on the activity stream. Facebook has chat. Google does too (text, voice, and video). Facebook has photos. Google does too, with Picasa Web Albums and various other complementary photo-related offerings. Facebook has videos. Google has YouTube (and Google Video). Facebook has notes. Google has Blogger. Facebook has Pages. Google has Profiles.  Google has email. Facebook may at some point (MySpace just added it last year). Facebook has games. Google is working on getting more. Facebook has news publications setting up Pages. Google has Google News. Facebook has the Open Graph. Google has search (all kinds of search…and maps).

Facebook has Facebook Ads. Google has AdWords, AdSense, and Doubleclick. Facebook has applications. Google has Google Apps, the Apps Marketplace, Android, the Android Marketplace, Chrome, Chrome OS, the Chrome Web Store, Google TV which will support Android apps and web apps. Google is also trying to get a music service off the ground.  And let’s not forget Google Calendar and Google Reader – two very user-personalized products. 

Google Products

That’s not everything, but I think that covers a pretty big chunk of what people want to use social networks for. I’ve got to say, on paper, I have to give Google the advantage. When you combine all of Google’s offerings, I wonder how that user base stacks up to Facbook’s 500 million. Yahoo claims 600 million. I’m guessing Google’s number is pretty high, but unfortunately, we don’t know what that is. 

People have often talked about Google’s "social media failures", but Google just may have the biggest social network of all, so I’ll reiterate: it’s all in the integration. Google just needs to make it happen in a way that people can clearly see it all come together and actually use it all together.

Speaking as both a user of various Google products and a user of Facebook, I’m fairly certain that they will co-exist just fine. 

Will Google finally get social right? Tell us what you think. 

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There are 73 Comments. Add Yours.
  1. TimO
    Reply

    Google and Facebook already seem to work together is some compacity, maybe indirectly but still it there is some cohesion. Apple has integrated both facebook and google into the iPhone universe with various Google and Facebook Apps. The main Facebook application has just received a recent addition called “Places” to its iPhone Application. This feature allows users to use GPS to show where they are and what they are doing. It integrates the use of Google maps to pick from an existing list of locations and places OR users can create a new place with their GPS coodinates which instantly adds the location to Google Maps. What is to become of this existing connection between Google and Facebook.

    • Chris Crum
      Reply

      I think there will continue to be connections in some capacity. Google reportedly said they’ll facebooks-data-by-hook-or-by-crook/”>get the coveted Facebook data one way or another too. Not sure what that means, but either way, they’re not going to be completely isolated from one another.

      • Guester
        Reply

        or break into FB’s system to get it.
        By hook or by crook, it seems.

        Yes, I realllly trust Google’s ethics and hence its stance on privacy .. NOT!

    • Ralph
      Reply

      So, Apple will come out smelling like a rose no mattere what happens. Could it be that Apple is actually the one behind all of this so the two will merge together. Apple is not asleep, I am sure it is working on more apps that will only work with Google and FB merged together.
      RT

  2. Google already has all the right applications, from video to email, to integrate. It makes perfect sense for people to use Gmail as their social network, via Buzz. I hope it works out. Wave was a bust, and I’m not so certain Buzz was a complete success…yet.

    • Chris Crum
      Reply

      Don’t forget that Google said it will implement Wave technology into other products as well. I don’t think I’d call Buzz a failure at this point. Probably not a home run, but I think it does get used by quite a few people. I’d like to see the numbers – certainly no where near the other big social networks, but having it right in Gmail has to help. I think Buzz will continue to grow along with Google’s new “Google Me” initiative.

  3. I wouldn’t necessarily give Google the advantage.

    Look at what happened with Google Wave. Look at what happened with Google Buzz. Google, similar to Apple, can’t hit them all out of the ballpark, not to mention that thus far Google has not shown itself to be a viable social platform. It’s a mega platform in SEO and marketing tools, but in social, it leaves a lot to be desired.

    Google, imo, should concentrate more on being the go-to for business. Facebook will be the go-to for the consumer.

    • Chris Crum
      Reply

      My point is that Google already has greatly successful products, like YouTube, Blogger, Picasa, and Gmail, and obviously search. Combining users of all of its products, I think would give it an advantage – years of acquiring users (since long before Facebook was born). That said, they do still need to prove they can connect everything together in a way that people will actually use.

      The activity stream should be intriguing if it works across all of Google’s relevant products. One stream for updates on Buzz, Blogger, YouTube, Picasa, Google Reader, etc. Think about that: You’ve got the status update covered with Buzz, the videos covered with YouTube, the photos covered with Picasa, article/news consumption/sharing with Google Reader.

      • Chris Crum
        Reply

        I’d also add that Google having a browser and two operating systems add to their advantage.

        Partnerships could play interesting and unforeseen roles as well. Think about how big of an impact Facebook made earlier this year when it announced the Open Graph. It came out with launch partners, automatically getting people to take advantage of the social plug-ins (publishers and users alike). If Google has some kind of a launch for this “social layer” (as opposed to just rolling out individual features gradually), and launches with significant partners showing its benefits, there’s a chance that will help it make an impact.

      • I would agree that Google’s successfully implemented stand alone products, if tied to together well, might give Google an advantage. The problem is that integration of any kind means change, and people tend to resist change. Facebook is already one entity, so adding on features is less of a jolt than pulling together separate products.

        But, Facebook is one of the most unintuitive and clunky pieces of junk I’ve ever used and simple tasks are way to complicated. The privacy issues didn’t help them either. If Google can pull products together that many people already use, they might use those instead of Facebook.

  4. Both are quite different in some ways. Google on the other hand have made its name to history long before facebook became popular. Facebook popularity has to do with the games they offer.

  5. R&D
    Reply

    It ain’t going to happen. The relationship is already built in Facebook. I’m sure a huge percent of Facebookers don’t have a youtube account or use anything Google other than search so the connections are not there. Facebook is dedicated, Google is just all things to all people and not everybody uses them. My contacts I’m 100% sure don’t even know or use any google sites or products. Good luck convincing them to switch to youtube, etc. Anyway, I don’t want my kindergarten teacher or my pastor to know what a naughty little evil I have been on my replies to the “Hot For Words girl” on youtube. I’m a total hyprocrite and lead a decent life on Facebook. Youtube is to sin.

    Google is late in the game and its wave or buzz (which is it?) violation of privacy lawsuit isn’t helping either. Google is not good at anything. They have to buy companies in order to be something. They got lucky with search because there sure weren’t anything worse it back then. Youtube they had to buy it and still isn’t profitable. If they can’t buy Facebook, it just ain’t going to work.

  6. For all their individual trimmings the core business of Google is search, the core business of Facebook is social.
    Google has all the data it needs to present relevant results to individuals because it knows each users preferences. What it doesn’t know and needs to find out in order to improve and refine the qualitative score in its search results, is the collective chat that goes on at Facebook.
    Even if Google makes it’s own successful social meta-network it will always want to know what is going on over the fence!
    In the long term I see convergence!

    • Ralph
      Reply

      I would have to agree. Things are not what they seem in many cases. I would agree that convergence is already planned between google and FB. Just another way of pulling in the masses.
      RT

  7. Guest
    Reply

    I’ve never used it.

    • Guest
      Reply

      This article just meant to grab attention. I’ve neve hard of google me before and it couldn’t be as big as facebook, thats for sure

      • Guest
        Reply

        For anyone who follows social media would know about the google me project. I’ve seen facebook grow from the beginning an loved it to the point I now hate it due to the restrictions and meaningless ads an spam. I don’t like being told my account is suspended because my company met 13 people at an event an I added them the same day. “facebook stated I didn’t know them an randomly adding people” when the actually looked up thier own accounts an added themselves on site. My facebook usage went from daily-several times a day, down to once a week. I’m anxiously awaiting googleme to be released!

  8. I have never heard of Google Me even though I use Google Adsense and a number of other apps which are brilliant. However, I dont believe for a minute Google Me will be as big or as user friendly as Facebook. Also I think Google Me will just be another way for Google to earn more money out of users. We will see though, time will tell. I look forward to hearing more about Google Me in the near future.
    :-)

  9. Guest from Holland
    Reply

    For me, user of social media but non-user of Facebook it’s bright & clear. Facebook in my mind suffers a bad name after problems with privacy protection and deleting one’s account. And I’m not a fan of mr. Zuckerberg.
    Google has the advantage of creating solid tools with clear privacy statements. So when the Google Me project comes to The Netherlands, I take that train.
    Zuckerberg is the hawk, Google the d

  10. Yes, Google has all of those things you mention, and to be sure they are powerful pieces of the puzzle. What Google doesn’t have, though, is a social media brand. People view Google as a search engine – a starting point for gathering intelligence online. Facebook meanwhile is a very powerful brand that users associate with connecting to other people.

    Making the leap over that fence is tougher than it sounds. Throughout history large companies with dominating brands in one area have a very difficult time developing a brand in another major area.

    If Google is to succeed in social media, it will take a long time. Meanwhile, is it possible that Facebook could become a larger player in search?

    • Chris Crum
      Reply

      A lot of people are already using Google brands for social media: perhaps just not “Google” the brand (YouTube, Picasa, Gmail, Blogger, etc.). The activity stream (if implemented right) could tie it all together in a way to get people to use them together. I do think we’ll see Facebook become a bigger player in search though.

  11. STR82U
    Reply

    Chris, you mentioned Google properties could be connected to make something like a complete social network and that sounds dead on to me. Some of us already have a personal set of “tools” of Google’s we use; Analytics, AdSense, AdPlanner, Gmail maybe, etc, etc. Socially though we might interact with webmasters and users through Code, Buzz and Talk, YouTube is a big one I almost forgot about, Blogger and the other publicly usable sites. We wouldn’t see much difference if all the logins were consolidated, right?

    Well, you all probably know what the many Google offerings are and it really is closer to being integrated than some might hope. Another take could be it will come sooner than we want or we won’t like it; you have to admint that is a lot of data. As big a “spread” as we can all agree that Google has, very few things can compete with some of the offerings. Integrated better, more like webmasters are getting, might be a scary thing.

    Good Morning Everyone!

  12. tiggsy
    Reply

    It just occurred to me that Wave integrated a fair bit, so maybe its demise is because they’re extending it to hold everything… Google Docs didn’t get mentioned in your piece (unless i missed it in the huge list), but that’s another property that could be included, as it was in Wave.

    Sounds interesting whether or not I’m right, and I will be watching with interest to see what happens

    • Chris Crum
      Reply

      Yes, there is certainly room for Google Docs (I’m sure I didn’t mention every product that could potentially be integrated). Anything collaborative has the potential to be a part of this, I think.

  13. Umarfaruk M
    Reply

    Can u tel me what is google me? plzzz..

    • Chris Crum
      Reply

      It has been rumored for some time that Google has been working on a new social network, tentatively called “Google Me”, as a potential competitor to Facebook. This past week, Google made comments indicating that they would not be launching a new product, but “Google Me” is actually a social layer that will be added to various existing Google products. It is very possible that it won’t be called “Google Me” at all. This is likely just an internal term, and a way to refer to the project when talking about it.

  14. There is no denying that Google has the necessary ingredients to make “Google Me” work. My concern pertains to the radical number of changes Google has been making in light of Facebook’s growing popularity. It creates the image of a lesser confident Google. If that image spreads it will reflect on it’s offerings, causing potential users to emotionally detach from Google’s services. Don’t get me wrong, I am a big fan of Google, but from a business perspective, I see a decreasing image of stability, and an increasing image of a corporation that’s scramble to hold onto the lead.

    Respectfully,

    James C. Tanner

  15. I really think as people discover putting personal information online is a bad idea these sites will fail.

    • Tom G
      Reply

      Texting is stupid cause it should have been the next best thing from when we only had pagers and were waiting for the abilty to talk wireless and now that we have that they are wearing out thier thumbs texting HOW STUPID PICK UP THE DANG PHONE AND TALK

  16. Jan
    Reply

    Is any one really going to continue to to put all their personal information online?

  17. After you are foolish enough to put all your personal Info on the social sites. You should contact us to clean up your internet reputation that you have surely destroyed.

  18. WILL GOOGLE ME BE GOING AFTER THE INTERNATIONAL MARKET. After all that is 75% of internet users that would seem to the way to beat face book

    • Best values,lowest interest rates,supportive team at Las Vegas

  19. DLM
    Reply

    Google vs. Facebook
    Google is the ?ing (????)…
    Facebook hmm so it is a social network that are well used by owners in marketing and good earnings!
    Who stays who will fall, silly question.
    Of course we know, Facebook will start to die, disappear when the current generation will grow up and start to deal with something more serious.
    Is this true? then I’ll wait to see!!!
    YES YES YES

  20. I used to use Myspace but basically abandoned it for Facebook because the overuse of “apps” rendered most pages illegible and assaulting with horrid music, flashing graphics and every other concievable gimmick! Toooooo much!!

    Now I dislike Facebook because of the overuse of all the “Apps” again! This time it is those silly mind sucking games and ever changing policies! Tooo much!

    Come on Google! Give me something clean, simple and straight forward without my having to wade through 75% crap to socialize!

  21. Google is just after …everything …….Google
    is an internet business grown too fast and
    too big. The real problem is that Google does
    not focus on his core business : search engines.

    Google strategy is wrong. ; one of these
    days some new internet guy will hit google
    on his core business .

    The way to expand their business is
    to take-over new companies.

    Google cannot keep on developing
    killer applications….dream on babe.

    Wait and you will see i am right.

    Easy come ….easy gone….

    giovanni domilici

  22. If one compares the rate of growth of Facebook with the relatively short time since it started being really successful it would not surprise me that a giant like Google would conquer on one hand new social users and, on the other, steal a part of Facebooks ones.

  23. Interesting read, I think we all saw that Google were lining up to take on Facebook and Google Me will certainly be a challenge for the FB crew.
    But you failed to mention Googles latest feature – Google’s Instant Search which it is now rolloing out and for which it promises a mobile version soon.
    What effects do you think Instant will have on the battle for Market Leadership between the two.
    Keep up the great articles –
    I’ll be back,
    Cliff

  24. Jennifer C
    Reply

    It is so difficult to keep up with all the social media networks and being in the real estate business, I don’t use many of the products available to its fullest potential because it’s overwhelming, confusing, and I find myself spending way too much time on the computer. Google Me is another product I have to learn to keep up with the never ending changes of our technology world.

  25. I’m glad they didn’t try to do an Orkut remix.

  26. Guest
    Reply

    I am so fed up of hearing about Google and its various entities that I could scream. Their search engine works but as far as I am concerned, the rest of it leaves a lot to be desired. Can someone take them down?

  28. I suppose Facebook will loose the battle one day, because Google will be faster with his development. The translation section has been improved that quick in the last 12 months and all systems together will develope a kind of artificial brain, knowing what the user will do next and supporting him finding the way through the jungle of datas.
    NM

    • Googe I like, face book not as much.

  29. Dear Friends,

    Have a nice day !!!

    In our life we always respect who help us when we are in need, google is most respectable than all as when ever we want any thing GOOGLE is like God always come first to give solution ….

    Google is also God for 80% of the software and website designing firms like us ( Om Software Technologies Inc.)

    Facebook is also having its own features but Google will be always “The Great”….

    It is fact that ” WITH THE DEMAND OF THE TIME THING COME AND GONE.. BUT FEW ARE THERE WHO REMAINS GREAT FOREVER IN THE HEARTS OF THE PEOPLE THEY NEVER DIE ” and I will say Google is One of them…

    Regards,

    OM PRAKASH PARIHAR
    Director
    Om Software Technologies Inc.

  30. I havent heard of Google Me till today but I did wonder when Google would take facebook on
    Face book is I think struggling to keep pace with its growth, it is starting to “Hang” more and more so I feel with googles expertise it will, as always win

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