Facebook Search and Google Social Networking
Co-founder of Digg, Kevin Rose, set off a flurry of activity on the Internet when he wrote “Ok, umm, huge rumor [sic]: Google to launch Facebook competitor very soon ‘Google Me’, very credible source” on Twitter on Monday. He has since deleted his tweet.
Adam D’Angelo, VP Engineering and CTO during his last 20 months at Facebook, confirmed the rumour on Quora, a collaborative social Q&A website he founded in 2009:
“Here is what I’ve pieced together from some reliable sources:
– This is not a rumor [sic]. This is a real project. There are a large number of people working on it. I am completely confident about this.
– They realized that Buzz wasn’t enough and that they need to build out a full, first-class social network. They are modeling [sic] 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.”
The rumour surfaced hot on the heels of the discovery that Facebook was including Open Graph-enabled web pages in its search. In Facebook’s case, these are websites that display the Facebook “Like” button.
Neither company’s attempt at breaking into the other’s space seems to be particularly successful for the moment. Google Buzz’s launch was marred by privacy complaints and Facebook’s search results aren’t always relevant and currently easy to game.
However, with rumours of Google Me and the results of Facebook’s search strategy just beginning to show, both companies appear quite well positioned to encroach on one another’s territory.
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