Jun 10
29
Google “Me” and What It Means Right Now
Ready? Nothing. My Google Reader (I know, “why do you still use a Google Reader??” I like my Reader, chill out) has been inundated with chatter about the new Google social network, “Me,” that is supposed to rival Facebook, and, while it does seem like big news, really is not what I want to be reading about.
Why is Google trying to make another foray into the social network biz? Not sure. Orkut is great (if you’re Brazilian), I use Wave at work (great for collab’ing), Buzz is awful (nobody needs another noisy aggregator), and Google Universal Search, itself, is already a sweet social aggregation tool as far as Personalized Search and Results From People In Your Social Network. Is Google nervous that Facebook’s internal search (confusing semantically and from a user experience, narrow in scope, and overall poor) will rival their own? (never say never, but this is pretty much a “never”)
I used to be a huge Google advocate (I voted for them in the 2008 Presidential Election and made plans to name my first daughter ‘Googleplex’), but now I’m on the fence. After their stint making phones (not going so well?), their attempt at imitating Twitter (Buzz) with no real user value, and this nervous nelly move at a legit social network, Google “Me” (don’t get me wrong, I like the pun; I Google myself weekly) is another chink in the armor of the search juggernaut. While I am sick of reading about it at the moment, I will definitely be tuned in when Google “Me” actually rolls out (and praying that it isn’t another huge bomb), but until then, there’s nothing to talk about.
(And I may have set the record for most extensive use of parentheses in under 300 words…)
