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2011-06-29 10:22:28
Google+ has been released for use by a small, selected number of users
Online search giant Google has launched a new social networking website in its
latest attempt to take on Facebook, which now claims more than 500m users.
Google+ allows individuals to share photos, messages and comments but also
integrates the company's maps and images into the service.
It also aims to help users easily organise contacts within groups.
But some analysts say Google has simply reproduced features of Facebook while
adding a video chat function.
Google, which handles roughly two out of every three internet searches in the
US, has taken several stabs at Facebook in recent years.
But its previous efforts ended in failure, with both Google Wave and Google
Buzz proving unpopular with users.
New functions
The company is now boasting that four features in Google+ could help make the
company a permanent player in social networking:
Continue reading the main story
Start Quote
Google is playing it canny by only releasing the product via invite to a
limited set of users before being gradually opened up to the general public
Maggie Shiels Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley
Read more from Maggie
Circles - a functionality that allows individuals to place friends into groups,
allowing users to share different forms of content with targeted clusters of
friends
Hangouts - live multi-user video conferencing that permits friends to drop in
and out of live group conversations
Huddle - group instant messaging
Sparks - a feature that connects individuals on the network to others with
common interests.
The current version of Google+ has only been released to a small number of
users, but the company has said it soon hopes to make the social network
available to the millions of individuals that use its services each day.
"Online sharing needs a serious re-think, so it's time we got started," Vic
Gundotra, senior vice president of engineering at Google, said in a press
release.
"Other social networking tools make selective sharing within small groups
difficult," she added, taking what appears to be a jab at Facebook's recent
grouping function.
But some analysts have said Google could have a difficult time converting
Facebook devotees to their new social network.
"People have their social circles on Facebook - asking them to create another
social circle is challenging," Debra Aho Williamson, principal analyst with
research firm eMarketer, told the Associated Press news agency.
"The whole idea of a Google social network... they've been throwing stuff
against the wall for several years and so forth nothing has stuck," she added.
In April, Google reached an out-of-court settlement with a US policy group over
its rollout out Google Buzz, a previous social effort.
The legal action claimed Google deceived users and violated its own privacy
policy by automatically enrolling all Gmail users in its Buzz social network
without seeking prior permission.
Google+: The new Facebook rival?
Unlike the launch for Google Buzz, Google+, the company's most aggressive
attack on Facebook's domination in the world of social networking, was unveiled
with little fanfare and little fuss.
Back in early 2010 the fourth estate came out in force to hear all about Buzz,
the search giant's big social play at the time.
Proof that the company thought so highly of this product was evidenced by the
fact that Google co-founder Sergey Brin took part in the press conference.
Buzz had all the right ingredients of a socially engineered product but failed
because of serious stumbles around privacy.
Earlier this year Google reached a settlement with the US Federal Trade
Commission to resolve concerns the company violated its own privacy policies
through Buzz.
This time around for Google+ which was code named Emerald Sea, there was no
press conference, no big press reveal and no execs trumpeting its arrival.
The emergence of Google+ was more or less heralded with a simple blog post by
Vic Gundotra, senior vice president of engineering at Google and the man who
has been in stealth mode for over a year leading the company's social play.
New features
Start Quote
All that information that Facebook's 500m users are sharing is locked behind
Facebook's wall out of the reach of Google's spiders and search smarts
But make no mistake, the lack of ceremony surrounding the arrival of Google+
does not take away from the fact that this is Google's most serious and
concerted effort to try to nail social.
It is also its most ambitious attempt to answer Facebook without copying what
it does. To simply do that would have been a recipe for disaster.
At the core of Google+ is a feature called Circles which is aimed at making it
easier to organise friends, family members and others into smaller, easier to
manage and more intimate groups as opposed to everyone you know.
The product will also draw on Gmail to work out who you might like to invite
into the circle.
With more than 500 million users Facebook is a growing threat to Google, its
bottom line and how users will continue to search. Right now Google can lay
claim to over 65% of the search market in the US according to research firm
comScore.
But as users rely more and more on friends and their social graph for
recommendations, Facebook is in the right place to cash in.
Old rivals
The reasoning goes that who would you trust for a recommendation for a
hairdresser/restaurant/gym more? Your friends on Facebook or Google's search
engine?
Screenshot of Facebook Facebook dominates the world of social networking
The fact that Google and Facebook don't play nice in the sandbox adds to the
drama of the situation. Remember earlier this year that Facebook was caught
using a PR firm to plant unflattering stories about Google.
Proof of the enmity between these two technology giants is clear in Mr
Gundotra's blog post when he refers to social networking as being "sloppy,
scary and insensitive" and maintains that the "problem is that today's online
services turn friendship into fast food - wrapping everyone in 'friend' paper."
Ouch!
Remember all that information that Facebook's 500m users are sharing is locked
behind Facebook's wall out of the reach of Google's spiders and search smarts.
Over the last couple of years Facebook has grown into a social networking
behemoth.
In May 180 million people visited Google sites including YouTube compared to
157.2 million on Facebook, according to comScore.
When it comes to user engagement Facebook is in the clear lead.
Users looked at 103 billion pages and spent an average of 375 minutes on the
site compared to Google's 46.3 billion pages where users spent 231 minutes.
These are figures that advertisers pay close attention to.
Earlier this year, Google's then CEO and now chairman Eric Schmidt admitted he
"screwed up" in the area of social networking.
"I clearly knew I had to do something and I failed to do it," he said.
Since co-founder Larry Page resumed the role of CEO back in April he put the
company on notice and told employees that future bonuses would be tied to the
success of Google's social strategy.
In a memo that he sent out at the time, Mr Page said "we all have a stake in
the success of this effort".
Google is playing it canny by only releasing the product via invite to a
limited set of users before being gradually opened up to the general public.
That way they can react quickly to feedback and implement changes quickly
without upsetting a lot of users.
Analysts are divided about how successful Google+ will be but Charlene Li of
the Altimeter Group said Facebook has to be worried nonetheless.
"The biggest risk group inside Facebook are people like me who are marginal
users, in their 40's and someone who does not have all their friends on
Facebook. Facebook is a toss up for me. My entire social graph isn't using
Facebook so that is up for grabs and if Google+ does a good job for people like
me, that is where I will go.
"It will be an interesting battle ahead. And for Google to be successful it
doesn't have to beat Facebook, it just needs to get enough people in these
circles to spend time there to make a dent on what Facebook does."
The ironic thing about the timing of the launch Google+ is that is enters stage
left as a former darling of the social networking world watches the curtain
slowly come down on its present.
Later today it is expected that MySpace will announce a number of lay offs
along with the news that it will be sold for around $30m, a far cry from the
$580m that Rupert Murdoch paid in 2005 for what was then the world's biggest
social network.
For now that title belongs to Facebook.