Monday, October 29, 2007

Google Readying Social Assault

TechCrunch has the skinny on Google's plans to outdo Facebook and MySpace by integrating social networking services across all of its platforms.

While it's going to be a long haul for Google to make its Orkut social networking competitive with the other platforms, as Forbes points out, iGoogle might be the real centerpiece of its social strategy.

If you put YouTube videos and "people updates" on iGoogle in combination with email and GoogleReader news feeds, why would you need another networking site? While younger audiences tend to shift loyalties quickly, the attrition rate from MySpace and Facebook users to Google will be slow, and there will likely be many folks who use both services.

Google could accelerate is social domination by buying LinkedIn and it's 15 million users. Google would quickly own social users who are more work than play, and that's a demographic that advertisers also like. Watch for that to happen soon.

In the long term, social networking isn't something you'll go to, it will be part of your most everyday tasks, and that sounds a lot like Google today.

Posted By John Gartner at 09:16 AM
Permanent Link: Google Readying Social Assault | Comments (0)

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