The Future of Social Networking
After watching the Facebook Live announcements a few questions and topics for discussion have risen.
In the next 5 years Facebook hopes to be the infrastructure for applications in the social networking realm. They just announced that they will be adding some more features to the existing chat and group chat. They now have new code that will examine your browser's width and determine if a buddy list will fit and then show the buddy list. As well as the option to add friends to an existing chat. All this leads to video chat from a "one click" button on a friends page, all help accomponied by Skype.
FB has many other integrations with other unnamed companies that they hope will use their social network infrastructure. What it looks like is that they are trying to make communication seamless, and use common ground to help "break the ice" between strangers.
How about Google? As big as they are, why is it they lack in the social networking realm. It is not secret that is not the position they want to be in. We all know, they more Google knows about you, that information will be easily accessible to the people you know and don't know.
In discussion with DrSkillzz, Googles new and past features have not done well. Google Wave, what was supposed to be a collaborative email tool did not seem to catch on to the masses, nor has Buzz.
Why?
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I think the biggest reason why Google's products and features have not lifted off as well as intended are because a lack of personal relationship. To ellaborate, lets talk about FaceBook again. From day 1, Facebook has had a personal relationship with its users. You sign up, you get a profile, put a picture, talk about whatever you want, connect with friends, messages, connect with strangers with common intrests, etc. And you do this... at your convienence, spare of the moment, and when someone says "check the new ___ i just posted. You feel connected.
Google has just now started in that direction to the masses. When we think of google, we think of a huge data base of knowedge, not a personal page or site to catch up on what is going on socially around you and with your close friends. Google's infrastructure is seamlesly built around data that you look for, while FB's infrastructure is built to show you data of your life and surrounding.
What will it take for Google to get where FB is?
Comments
What I think it will take for
What I think it will take for Google's future in Social Networking and where I believe they already have an upper hand is User Interface.
Who is using Chrome? Google TV? Email and Calendar? Android phone or tablet? I would confidently say just every other person uses a Google product, daily. This is where I see user interfaces helping out. Pull out your phone and you'll be bound to see notifications like you already do, but spread out through your phone. More integration with Google Contacts.
I believe UI is one of the key items with social networking sites and tools. People love simplicity, I think thats partly why MySpace was over rulled with FB. MySpace for me became just way too cluttered.. with people making their own themed pages (which some were just horrid to look at), and FB used to be very minimal. And look now, Google's Profiles/Plus is here with a minimalistic feel.
I am not sure if anyone is
I am not sure if anyone is familiar with Kevin Rose, but he pretty much nailed a great portion of what could be in this discussion.
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In order for a product to make its way into my everyday routine it either has to create a new addiction (eg. make every picture I take look awesome -- instagram) or offer an experience that is so much better than the competition that I make the switch (eg. My move from Friendster to MySpace to Facebook). So where does Google+ fit in? I'm not sure, but a few of the features having me coming back for more:
-- Feedback Loop: +1's next to everything give me a way to acknowledge others for their contributions, whether it be a great comment or post to the stream. Facebook offers this in the form of 'likes' but this is a key feature missing from Twitter. To give feedback on Twitter I need to retweet or reply, this requires a lot more thought than a simple +1 click.
-- Realtime data: Seeing comments appear Quora style (as they are happening) is fun -- couple that w/the lightweight feel of the UI and G+ feels a lot faster than the competition.
-- Incoming: This allows me to see all the post from people that are following me, for brands and Scoble (web celebs) this is a great way to interact w/your fan base without having to follow people you don't know.
-- Wait, this is a long post: Is this a blog replacement? What happened to 140 characters? This post will reach a wider audience than posting it on kevinrose.com, it also has the added benefit of social sharing built in from the ground floor (think Tumblr re-blog). I might replace my blog w/G+ if it bring more traffic and sharing.
-- Sparks: This needs a lot of work but could be a killer feature. I'm excited for the posibilites here.
... all that said, great first effort Google!
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If anyone needs a Google +
If anyone needs a Google + invite, PM me.
I'll be writing a review on it once I'm able to see how it handles (much) more users. As of now, it's hard to write a review of it as I don't use it often, and mostly because there just aren't as many of my friends/family on it yet.
Still, off the bat, it's far more intuitive and fluid than Facebook has ever been.