How can Google succeed with its social networking plan?
Published: 07 Jul 2010
Over the past few days Google has been in news for two big developments.
The search giant has signed a definitive agreement to acquire ITA Software, a Cambridge, Massachusetts flight information software company, for $700 million. There already has been a lot of assessment of this move as far as its impact on the travel industry is concerned.
Just few days before this agreement, it was also reported that Google is working secretly on Google Me, a product that is being dubbed as a Facebook competitor. The rumoured new site is expected to move beyond Google Buzz, a Twitter competitor launched as an add-on to Gmail that allows users to share links, photos, video and status messages.
How this move shapes up is worth following, too. As pointed out by pcmag.com, “social networking is Google’s white whale”. In its report, the publication has highlighted that Google’s “otherwise nearly impeccable track record of launching properties has long been marred by its inability to make headway in the space largely dominated by Facebook and MySpace”.
Adam D’Angelo, founder of the social networking site Quora, and a former senior manager at Facebook, recently reportedly said “This is not a rumour. This is a real project. There are a large number of people working on it.”
“They realised that Buzz wasn’t enough and that they need to build out a full, first-class social network. They are modelling it off of Facebook," wrote D’Angelo, describing it as a “high priority project”. “They had assumed that Facebook’s growth would slow as it grew, and that Facebook wouldn’t be able to have too much leverage over them, but then it just didn’t stop, and now they are really scared.”
Adjustment
According to pcmag.com, Google is expected to face a new set of challenges, as seen with the expansion of Yahoo and Microsoft.
“An increase in company size leads to a seemingly inevitable breakdown in communications between departments, leading to a fair deal of overlap in properties and a general lack of integration with products, despite their having come from the same company. Google, however, develops products with such seamless integration in mind,” it added. It further added that between separate-but-connected properties like Google Profile, Social Search, and Buzz, Google already possesses a number of important social networking features. “What it lacks, however, is a central hub designed with the intention of definitively tying together these sites into a true social network, in the Facebook and MySpace sense. Doing so would require a bit of reverse engineering—essentially, building a Facebook from the top, down.”
The creation of such a centralised site would seemingly go against the purpose of the disparate Google Friend Connect, which was an attempt to make the entire Internet one big Google social network. It would, however, create the potential for another heavily-trafficked site that's easily monetised with Google's own giant ad network. Referring to the outcome, the report added: If, however, the company can repeat Facebook’s user-friendly approach (and if anyone can, it's Google), a site like Google Me might actually succeed where properties like Orkut failed.
Traffic
Interestingly, there has been a debate about comparing social networking traffic and search engine traffic, too.
When a research showed that in May, for the first month ever, social networks received more visits than search engines in the UK, Greenlight, an independent specialist SEO and PPC consulting and technology firm, pointed out that comparing social networking traffic and search engine traffic is flawed.
“Search engine usage is the proactive and decisive pursuit of information and content that will often lead to a consumer transaction. A search engine visit is quite likely to result in a monetary transaction, a Facebook visit may just be someone looking at a post on their wall and a million miles away from a conversion. A search engine visit has a distinct commercial or informational purpose, which isn’t necessarily true of the average Facebook visit (yet).”
“What is true however is that Google and Facebook are indeed competitors. Both want to deliver on the search and social modal requirements of online users. But comparing visits doesn’t conclude anything at all about how this is actually playing out. The only conclusion to draw is that search and social are both incredibly important for people and marketers. Engaging with them both is critical, but that engagement needs to be different as it needs to reflect their relative value in driving acquisitions, brand loyalty, brand awareness, and word of mouth – they are not the same.”
“As such, to compare content to the means of acquiring it isn’t a big story. However, more insight into the influence of social media and search engines on buying decisions and brand awareness would celebrate the meritorious differences of each and not assume they are the same. The comparison of Facebook to Search Engine usage, and then saying social network traffic has exceeded that of search engines, suggests this is some kind of seminal moment. This is no big story.”
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