For those of you in a hurry, I’ll just provide the money shot here to save you time: no.
One or two of you may have noticed that Google threw their hat in the social networking ring the other day when they announced Google Buzz.
Normally I pay serious attention when Google does something. They have a track record of doing (or buying) Great Stuff. How many of us are practically dependent on GMail, Reader, YouTube, Calendar, Picasa, Maps, etc.? They also make a pretty darn good web browser. Their smartphone operating system isn’t too shabby either (even if it isn’t as cool as Palm’s webOS). Oh, and I almost forgot, their search engine isn’t too bad either.
Google, like Apple, has done well and has a following because their products tend to be great. Where Apple usually falls into the revolutionary category, Google has masted the evolutionary. In other words, Google has made their bank executing existing ideas better than anyone else. Apple surprised us with iPad, which is an extremely reactionary product.
This is exactly the reason why Microsoft will never be anything but a shadow of their former self, even though the masses will continue to use their desktop os and office suite for the foreseeable future. Microsoft is incapable of creativity. Everything they do is reactionary. Windows. IE. Zune. Xbox. Their embrace of C++ and later C# and .NET. Silverlight. All been done before. They usually hit way off target as well, providing product which really and truly sucks compared to the competition. C’mon fanboy, before you blast me in the comments for saying it, what web browser are you reading this in?
So Google, who usually knows what they’re doing and who has a tendency of creating product that becomes a necessary part of our connected lives is interested in social networking now. Should we care? Should Facebook be scared?
No.
Why did Facebook take off they way it did? Why was Facebook able to knock off My Space?
My Space never attracted the kind of numbers we are seeing on Facebook. Enough people used My Space that it made everyone aware of social networking, but it didn’t execute the idea to the point where it made non-technical types comfortable with it. Facebook made sense to these people. Facebook made it easy to connect with people you knew. The basic design of Facebook is brilliant, because it doesn’t exclude anyone.
Why is going after a slice of that big, big pie a bad idea?
I can think of a few reasons. 400 million reasons actually. That is how many users Facebook is up to now. 400 million.
Why would there be a mass exodus from Facebook when so many people are using it? There won’t be. My Space was different. The people who initially embraced Facebook weren’t necessarily My Space users. Their My Space using friends were ultimately forced to join Facebook as it became apparent that is where the party was at.
400 million. My mom is on Facebook. Most of my friends are. My immediate family is. Most of my co-workers are. Most of the people I pass in the cereal aisle at Wal-Mart are.
It’s too much. Facebook is here to stay. Google can hope to knock off, oh I don’t know, maybe FriendFeed with Buzz, but Facebook is untouchable. In addition, not everyone is using GMail, so Google needs people to join just to use Buzz. Not gonna happen.
Bad try. Go back to the drawing board and come back with something useful Google. Here are some ideas:
- Make my GMail contacts sync with my Facebook friends info. Currently my phone does this better than any other solution. In fact, it blew my mind. My entire adult life as a computer user I have never once bothered populating my address book. Palm’s webOS Contacts populates itself from the accounts you add to it (GMail, Facebook) and it works exactly the way it should. I have a pretty complete address book for the first time, and I can sync it to GMail. Perfect. There is some poor excuse for a Facebook app that does this, but not really. How about just making it part of GMail?
- I know zero people that use Google Talk. Facebook chat is horrible, but again, it’s where your 400 million closest friends already are. I never bothered with ICQ or AIM, but if I see one of my friends on Facebook while I’m on I actually use Facebook chat sometimes. Integrate it in Talk. It’s a start.
- The whole idea behind Buzz is not a bad one. Make Buzz a feed for all of your social media. Integrate Twitter and Facebook like the 1000 other integrated solutions do, and keep the ability to add websites. Buzz could equal Facebook+Twitter+RSS+Instant Chat+Email+SMS+etc…Buzz could actually become a very useful social networking tool if it is refined properly. All of your social networking in one spot.
- Forget the above. Just quit screwing around and buy Facebook. Then you can integrate what Facebook does with your existing services and we will never have to have this discussion again.
Do you need to rush to populate your Buzz follow list lest you miss the social networking revolution? Uh, no. It will be interesting to see if Google can refine it into usefulness. I have a feeling they will figure out something, and you can be sure that Adsense and Adwords will play a role.
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