This could be interesting. I wonder if Yahoo or Microsoft will try to launch the same thing. Or have they already done it ?

Uh I dont think this will amount to much no matter how many engineers they put behind this. Innovation in this space has come to a crawl. Plus I dont really see google being able to add that human touch. Google = robotic….

I am thrilled! GOOG launches yet another non-money maker.

why do anther facebook? People can spend way more time doing useful things rather than voyering online.

Anyone remember Wave?

This could get very interesting as soon as we know how many Google account/gmail users there are.

Google can flip the switch and from day one, it would have millions of users. This battle is very much about the User Experience.

I would not assume it is another walled garden social network. That is unlike Google, and if you look at Buzz/PubHubSubBub/WebFinger/Salmon and other protocols they are assembling, it is likely to be a disruptive web-scale play to commoditize and remove heavy centralization from social networks, effectively ripping their advantages away, and putting the advantage on those who can index large federated/distributed networks of (social) information

If Google is determined to launch this project then they must keep in mind that failure is not an option after orkut,buzz,wave,jaiku, they have totally failed in Social. And this if it does not click it might undermine its brand overall.

Facebook should just build their own search and incorporate that into their website….google would be an afterthought if the search was good….

I'm predicting that this time Google will get it right and "Google Me" or whatever it is called will rock.

Google can’t and won’t hire anyone but droids whose understanding of humans is one point lower than a jar of dirt. Although no fan of FB, I’d be surprised if Google makes it to second base on this one.

What a clever subtle way to publicize Quora :) Take a hot rumor, inject it with a new startup and within 12 hours all major news network will be publicizing the hot rumor (not sure if it is true or not but who cares) and Quora gets a free PR ride :)

What happened to Orkut? I guess that was a 20% project. Google Me I assume is an 80% project. LOL

Dunno whether you ever thought about it, but what does useful mean in the first place? Is it useful to earn money your entire life and then just die…? As far as I am concerned being on facebook is one of the more 'useful' things, in comparison to many things which are normal nowadays. Although you are quite right there are things which are far more useful, though I strongly doubt you are doing any of these things.

If google is in here to win it they make it a distributed/open/social-web protocol / platform, where you even can deploy your own client to our server or choose google as a provider. The next logical step is to give user full control of their data and even allow them to deploy data and management of their data to their own servers…this might be a little bit dreaming and it is too early for something like this to happen. But it is definitely the future….

If you are Google you have to do something to slow down the FB rocket. I feel they need to laser focus on the problem and get the entire company behind a broad "social matrix" – Android, Chrome OS, AdWords, etc…

P.S. I still laugh every time I hear Marissa talk about how they A/B test 10 different shades of blue for a product launch. This issue is much bigger then figuring out #66ccff vs. #0099ff

Google should give 100 bucks to everyone who signs up, that will be awesome!

useful, like reading books, thinking about the economy, politics, having hobbies like photography (FB does support this), hiking, biking, meeting real people etc.

wave was about email, not social networking, and wave is going to big once it is open sourced.

nice way to generate traffic for quora.

I think Google has the same problem as Microsoft when it comes to social applications : it does not work because they are not "cool" and "fun" companies.

Seriously, watch all the MS "live" websites. It sucks and nobody use it. Google may be a bit better at it but I don't see it happen. Lots of Google apps are great but not that fun. Waves try to be fun and it's a failure, for example.

In a way the problem is that they use to much of the brand. Flickr, Picasa, Youtube etc are great BUT not really tied to their owner's name (and are acquisitions).

All it needs is an import button. If I can import and the network is sound and not sneaky then I’m there.

yeah yeah the 'open source' aspect is going to drive in users. *sigh*

This is already a failure, Im not going to join another social network for no reason, i dont know about you guys but the majority wouldnt change

you must have had a googasm no ? Fanboys *sigh*

Hell Yeah , Google ME
I am so excited . http://harbhag.wordpress.com

da sage noch mal einer, microsoft wollte alles beherrschen oder apple plane dies… http://nepidd.wordpress.com/2010/06/29/2456/

no, it is going to drive websites to use it and hence familiarity and hence more people will use it. You will see, they will show you.

Google is a lovely company and I admire its technical ability and achievements greatly, but the fact of the matter is that it couldn't market its way out of a damp paper bag. Until the company addresses this it will continue to see otherwise great products fall by the wayside. Geeks can only take you so far, chaps!

You're probably right, but a lot of people will join and the UI will make or break it. Google has millions of users already and it will be simplistic for those users to create an account on "Me". Not only will they have the benefit of that, the Diaspora project already proved that there's many people who want an alternative to Facebook, and they're PAYING money to get it. One thing's for sure, they're going to have one hell of a crowd of early adopters.

>Facebook needs a strong competitor

In the case of social networks I believe the market needs

- just one player and market forces that regulate it
or
- multiple players with interface standards that make them compatible.

Multiple coexisting social networks that are not compatible is not an efficient market.

you think everyone can do search? just ask Microsoft. Bing is not too shabby, but to most people Google=Search. and I doubt FB has the people to create a competitive search engine.

Do all other start ups hire driod as well? why is there no serious competitor to FB? the cost of leaving FB is too high.

Trust me they'd have their 'Sweet' moment with Google Me.

Didn't Google buy Orkut?!

They don't need to beat FB, they just need to slow its growth, Microsoft and Yahoo should do the same. FB doesn't have a cash cow like adsense, all the have is momentum and hype.

Bizarre. They already have orkut, which is pretty popular in India, Brazil and other countries. Why do they need another SNS?

What I'm thinking of Google Me is as: Combine all Google properties; Youtube, Maps, Picassa, Latitude, Talk, Voice, Mail, Blogger etcetera and you have something no-one can beat. Just get the UI right, Google. I'll be the first one to jump in!

Ah, please stop preaching as though Facebook kills all real world conversation.

I went to an international school after which I graduated from university and now live in Singapore. Because it was an international school all 100 students in my batch went of to different parts of the world.

Last week a friend from the school decided she wanted to visit me. So, how did she contact me? You guessed it, Facebook.

I will call you a loser if you spend all day reading through your friend's news feeds. However, I will equally call you a loser if you spend all day reading TechCrunch stories (no offence TC) or if you spend all day reading books.

There is no single hobby which is "useful" or "good" if you are so absorbed that you neglect everything else.

Life must be lived in moderation. That is key, if you use Facebook to connect with your friends and family (i.e. what it is meant for) then I do not see anything wrong with it. In fact it is immensely useful for this purpose. If on the other hand you spend all your days stalking people on Facebook, then yes you should be doing "more useful things".

However, please stop preaching that reading a book, or "thinking about the economy" is a higher calling than interacting with friends on social media sites.

FB is not cool, your grandma and grandpa are on it too. Everyone sign up because everyone else is on it.

how often do you get a friend from overseas contacting you? If my friend from overseas want to catch up with me when they're in town, they'd find a way to contact me, FB or no FB, email would just work fine as well. I'd love to see a survey of the average time spent on farmville.

People won't join 'Google Me'. Anyone who has a Google Account or Google Profile will be morphed into 'Google Me'. The same case scenario as when Google Buzz was incorporated into G Mail.

Google wants to build the best All-in-one Real-time Social Networking Platform with 'Google Me', surrounded by of course – Google Advertising.

Google is running scared of Facebook. They will work really hard to break its power and influence in todays Social Web Landscape. Plus they have deep pockets to make this happen.

Quite simply, ALL the time. If a friend visits me or I visit a friend, the de facto point of contact is FB. E-mail addresses change, there are spam filters, etc. etc. In contrast FB is one central point of contact that is unlikely to change. If I send a message on FB or write on someone's wall I am quite confident that I will receive a response.

In addition it is unlikely that a friend visiting from abroad would have my local phone number.

Actually, FB is the starting point of most conversations.

Generally, if someone visits it starts with a wall post along the lines of “I’m visiting, will you be there?” Then we exchange contact details (i.e. email or phone numbers).

My point is that FB should not be all consuming, but to say that it is a waste of time just shows that your use of it is limited.

Let me give you another example of how FB has helped me. A while ago a friend of mine introduced me to someone he knew at a university close to the one I went to. We didn’t really stay in touch. Then one day on my news feed I noticed that this person mentioned that she was coming to Singapore. So, I let her know that I was in town and we should meet.

I cannot imagine any other service which would allow that kind of interaction.

I guess thats true – if they make one hell of a UI then they may have something, but I still know so many people who use products like gmail, even I do yet I couldnt be bothered in using that buzz issue, so pointless when I have facebook, I dont even use twitter cause facebook is the same and more.

Yup I want Google Me. I too think Google Me may beat Facebook. But what about Diaspora*?

Nabeel

The way I would say it:
GOOG launches yet another copy-cat non-money maker product to be shut down in 2 years.

After 20 or so products so far, I think we can see the trend. Reality is that startups are run by entrepreneurs while Google products are run by employees. Employees do not stay awake at night thinking of how to beat competition. Hence Google has failed and will continue to fail to compete.

Am I the only one who sees it that way?

This thing can be the beginning for face recognition-search.

How is hiking and biking useful? You might personally enjoy this more than browsing Facebook profiles of you friends (and others) but that doesn't make it useful.

Facebook is an entertainment destination, people spend their free time over there, the same way they are playing games or watching movies.

there already are lots of open source collab tools available :)

I guess this would explain why Google is letting its Facebook app for Android stay horrible. It's been said, but the real keys to this will be all of Google's successful and semi-successful products: GMail, Maps, YouTube, Latitude, etc. Imagine having just one log-in for all of your Google services AND social networking features for all of it in one place. And Buzz isn't great, but it is cool to see people's updates as a layer in Google Maps.

Like someone said, on day one they'd have millions of users but slowing FB will not be easy but the one thing FB doesn't have is a mobile OS to help drive adoption. Google has to figure out how to let users transfer data from FB in a few clicks.

ok

one central point unlikely to change? that's what people think of Myspace as well. seriously if you spend 15 mins on FB per day to reply to friends, that's fine. but a LOT of people spend hrs on farmville, and obsessively check status updates.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/29/google-me-facebo...

Wake Up Google! Google Me should be name My Way On Now.

Techmeme fail for this article, see: http://www.techmeme.com/

Full description reads: "Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch: Former Facebook CTO: ‘Google Me’ Is Real, And It's Gunning For Facebook … This website uses IntenseDebate comments, but they are not currently loaded because either your browser doesn't support JavaScript, or they didn't load fast enough."

Isn't Wave from Microsoft? Can't think of an active Google product with that name. http://www.microsoft.com/uk/wave/home.aspx

No, they created it in-house (it was a pet project from google employee which they opened up for the public)

You mean like how Buzz took advantage of all those Gmail accounts, and how everyone absolutely loathed the fact that they signed up to use email, and found themselves also part of a social network, with a lot of their private contact details exposed to the public? Yeah, great idea….I'm sure if it didn't work the first time, it'll work a second time.

How about Google buy up Diaspora and put some real backing behind the project?

Yep, but there are ways to make employees feel like entrepreneurs, many many ways :)

I am surprised nobody mentioned anything about privacy yet?! The amount of info Google could gather by having a social network tied to your google accounts would go exponential.

Agreed. If you thought Facebook was ugly, imagine the hacked-together rounded corners buttons and the 3 tone gradients.

I hope there is an alternative to Facebook competition brings out the best in companies. I think if there was a large competitor like Google in the social networking market it would force Facebook to improve there service and tighten up security. Plus it would be great to have two companies thinking up good ideas would really be a great thing would help give social networking a big push.

wave.google.com the singularly most advanced communication tool on the web. In fact it's so ahead of its time it's practically useless at the moment.

quora = mahalo?

wow, calling it Me is another slap in the face to apple.

More Buzz & Wave?

Diaspora will never go anywhere. Facebook is 'evil' and has to go. I think Google can deliver a high-quality, more secure Facebook clone and destroy Facebook quicky. Especially if Google Me delivers better SEO results.

Mike,____Ditto…that's the first thing I thought since not many people talk of Quora…they will after today!

Hmmmm they would have to do SOMETHING to sweeten the deal with users, otherwise user would see no point in switching over. Perhaps better mobile access (i.e. Facebook for Android is seriously lacking in features) or maybe search for friends and information. I'm not sure what Google has in store but it better be good enough to bring over some Facebook users or this will crash and burn.

I enjoy my time on facebook, but I would gladly try out "Google Me". It's all about what's new and hot… even though I've only logged into Google wave once.

Wow….finally google felt the heat, but one more social network, really? http://www.bmped.in

Unless fbook does something really stupid I can't see anyone making the switch.

How ’bout Bebo?

Google cannot build something organic that can rival Facebook.

google me need to do a strong integration with android, otherwise it won't have a chance with it

Why bother improving a search engine, when Google already has one?

You're missing the bigger picture. People are using their friends as the search engine now. If Google doesn't have a way of tracking the links and the influence, it can't have the best algorithm of relevance for YOU.

They need to seriously drop the google name. Come up with a name that's NOT associated with google, something that the dumb AOL crowd will think is a brand new company. Then they might have a shot.

Google needs to make sure they do not roll this out before it is truly ready. Buzz & Wave were not ready so the user experience was poor. That initial response by users has really hurt those product offerings. If they roll this out before it is truly a better offering than Facebook they will fail once gain. And any privacy snaffu will kill this project as well.

Google is now at the stage of its development where it starts pulling a Microsoft and veering way off target from its core franchise. The next five years will be a very vulnerable period for Google in search as they make the same types of mistakes Microsoft has made.

My thoughts exactly. And Zuck/FB may be about to really regret their stance on everything being open. Google is going to say prove it. Let FB users take all of their data with them if you are so open.

Oh boy, thinking about politics is "useful"? I'm just going to have to stop you right there.

It remains to be seen whether GOOG can provide the privacy controls that FB failed. And whether GOOG can provide the credibility for which GOOG is not currently known. For the name "Google Me" (= search for, and find all about, me) does not bode well, for privacy advocates.

-

I doubt anyone would have to choose one or the other – if Google is smart they would take advantage of the recent openness the Facebook platform has introduced and tie it into their own social network to make it easy for users to use both.

Good article. One point about "creating the next Facebook is going to be easier said than done — nearly 500 million people already have their content stored on Facebook".

when will Quora realize their brand will never fly mainstream? when will Quora realiize that the internet does'nt need another Q and A site?

The real reason why they need to do this ? and do this now?

It turns out that Facebook ads are more valuable than Google ads, and more customizable. Soon Facebook will be making more revenue than Google.

its got a shot. especially if they use the search page to promote it. me.google.com? http://www.googleme.com? but it can't be a grab bag of all their services. It needs to be integrated, cohesive and singularly branded.

…and by George please hire a decent graphic designer.

google wants to be everywhere. five years down the line, it will be nowhere

Facebook are currently upping their search functionality to include external websites -could be an interesting battle coming up in the next few months!

I don't think that's what people want at all. It should be based off Google search, like you search a person's name and the first links are all google me links…this should be a facebook/linkedin killer but not tied into all their other properties, maybe gmail and google talk but the rest would clutter the experience.

But buzz was inside gmail.. I think Google Me won't be (at least it shouldn't be to compete against Facebook). And also I'm pretty sure they remember it, so I hope they won't repeat the same mistake they did before, maybe asking if you want to share your gmail profiles or create a new one and simple linking it with the gmail acc :-)

The Facebook ecosystem scares Google. Many of my non-tech friends spend more time on FB than anywhere else online, though YouTube is a close second. If FB adds good search, productivity tools, and office applications, they would be complete working environment for most users.

Microsoft invested in it…………..

Im tellin ya dude, one day Google WILL rule the world. Just wait and see.
http://www.real-anonymity.se.tc

If Facebook launches an e-mail service, game over.

Finally a smart comment. The next big social network "thing" will be decentralized.

Always interested in new social media right? Social Media is the present and future of web.

Is there really a need for more social media? Maybe something new and original but not a copycat

Anything that has the Google name attached to it is worth taking notice. That being said, it's going to take a LOT to compete with Facebook. Google is notorious for releasing products prematurely and having the public decide on how to improve them and I imagine "Google Me" will follow suit.

Facebook's success lies in the fact that it connects individuals with each other better than pretty much any site out there. How is Google going to improve upon this without mimicking Facebook's formula? I personally think Google would be smarter to build a Social Networking site that differs greatly from Facebook, instead of directly competing with it. LinkedIn, for example, succeeds because it establishes itself as a more B2B Social Network. Location and mobile the two hottest topics this year..it would be great to see Google become an innovator in the Social Networking space by playing off of this instead of trying to better Facebook's concept.

Confused by your comment Jonathan. Microsoft's problem was that it ignored search and fell behind competitors. Now it's playing catchup with Bing. Google SHOULD ignore its core franchise so it doesn't follow in Microsoft's footsteps.

If you think facebook is non-money maker than you are pretty far from the truth… Google is loosing market share in advertising in favor of facebook :( :( Fb displays advertisements according to your likes, interests and so on. In case of Google, you need to explicitly search for something to show you adequate adds.
That's why Google want's soc network so much.

Business, buddy, business.

It's more about money than about a need.

No chance. NO CHANCE. They have no chance at beating or even gaining a good percentage of ground. Facebook is in far too deep now, covering so many bases. Google does not have the manpower, dedication or teams to execute a REAL competitor to Facebook. Good luck to em but anyone that knows anything about Facebook will tell you, NO CHANCE.

While I'd like to see someone offer FB some real competition, I'm not sure Google is the one to do it.

My concerns are:

1. Just how much of your data do you want Google to have? I'd prefer to see a new player give FB some competition.

2. It sounds as if they're throwing out a FB clone. Why would anyone switch to a "Me Too" network, esp if it means moving a lot of data over? If FB wants to compete, they're going to have to offer something FB doesn't.

Sharp!

Seems crazy to jump into a market where such a successful concept is already live and supported by more than 500 millions people controled by a mammoth monopolistic company unless… you have awesome innovation potential (Apple VS Microsoft) or you are backed by one of the biggest walled on the planet… like GOOG. If anyone can create a great second best social application and be competitive against Facebook I believe it's GOOG.

Maybe say, your FREAKIN ALUMNI website??? FB is now nothing more than a free version of classmates.com, except instead of being forced to use your .edu email and JOIN your goddamn school network, which you worked so hard for; anyone can join.

I find it funny just how many stupid college graduates there are out there. Don't know how to stay in contact except through FB. But that's what it was meant for anyway. Just for COLLEGE people.

Social Network Wars 1! Google Can Handle it.

You've hit the nail on the head. Google are a great company and have innovated well over the years. But… their latest product failures are the result of geeks designing cool stuff for geeks. Facebook is for my wife and her friends – none of whom are geeks. Apple design stuff for real people too – just look at how the geeks loathe that company's creations. In a nutshell, geeks don't understand real human beings.

I love Google but why does everything have to be Google!

The advantage i see the vast variety of products google has – which they might widgetize in google me
Chat (big) , youtube ,etc. Make 'em compatible with google me. Its gonna be different.

I cannot say its gonna win over fb. Unless the product differentiates it self as iphone did .

What ever you say … every knows that google rocks … they gave you best and fastest free email ever … so in time you will see …

Just like PayPal did, except PayPal only had to give away $5 to get lots of people to join.

User interface and functionality is important. So is the name. For example, Google Buzz should (also) be incorporated into Orkut. And they need to change the name of Orkut to something easier to remember how to spell and that has a cool factor.

The thing is, they already have really cool products out there, that do all sorts of neat things. But the integration is missing or not obvious. Why isn’t Google Buzz in Orkut? That would be the ideal place for it. Why isn’t Google Buzz integrated with Google Talk, so you can send and receive buzz updates from Google Talk? Why isn’t YouTube integrated with Orkut & Google Buzz, so when you post a video on YouTube, it gives you the option to post a link in Orkut & Google Buzz automatically? Why can’t you share a Google Doc with a Orkut user and have shared docs appear in Orkut? Why doesn’t Google Wave conversations appear in Orkut for participating users? Why can’t public conversations in Wave appear in Buzz and vice versa? Why doesn’t Orkut tell you how many Gmail messages you have unread, and Gmail tell you how many unread messages in Orkut there are for you? And why can’t you reply to YouTube and Orkut private messages from directly in Gmail, like you do with Goole Buzz messages?

There are so many ways this stuff can be integrated. That is what is missing. That, and a better name for Orkut. And more Facebook-like features in Orkut. And….

I’m neither a photographer nor a developer, lol, open sourced or not, no Wave for me.

One word … Lively

that was the most useful comment I’ve ever seen.

Google is already there.

Gmail = the best online and awsomely searchable email service
Google Voice = gives you a free phone number from which you can SMS and call from any phone
Google Calendar = shares whatever you want with anyone
Picasa = photo sharing with great facial recognition already in it

All they need is a great interface to combine all these and it's game on. I wouldn't even care if the right column has little text ads in it. And they should not require anyone to "sign up" to view content. One more thing. Allow the user to control any and all sharing of private info and they will win. That's all I'm done thanks for playing buh bye.

I'd make the switch to Google Me over Facebook, Facebook has turned and is still turning into MySpace with all the applications/games they have and keep adding. I hate getting all those requests. As long as Google Me keeps it simple and it can link to my gmail/blogs it will be more convenient than having to check multiple accounts all the time and having to click ignore/block on all the dumb requests. I love the gmail interface, it's organized and easy to use, so I'm excited to see the competition with Facebook. The only concern I have is for privacy, Google already has access/links to millions of people, who knows what kind of stuff they'll put in the contract to be able to use.

mmmm. im not "feeling it" for goog anymore. friggn impossible to get ranked old school way … now ONLY adwords works and when your "budget" is spent.. you just dont feature..

Just incorporate a bing searh bar at the top of facebook and then Google will be on their heels.

"Looking for tech contributors for new site. http://skytechrev.wordpress.com/." Experts or enthusiasts welcome.

That comment is absurd.

"In a nutshell, geeks don't understand real human beings." -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Zuckerberg

Obviously the best people to design, program and implement computer programs are the people on the street with no experience of designing, programming or implementing computer programs.

If you take YouTube, Google Reader, Google Buzz, Google Friend Connect, Google Docs, Google Wave, Blogger, Picasa, Gmail, Gcaht, SMS messaging, and tie them altogether in a wall type app you really have something. Then make them all available on an Android phone too.

That is what Google is out to do here, not imitate Facebook. Google has simply built a social network in reverse, bringing in the wall page last.

Also when you consider that you can use any of these world class apps independently without the wall, they become much more powerful too. And they are all open to the public, anyone can read my Google Buzz posts.

I've been trying to think of FB's secret sauce that is lacking from other competitors. I've recently thought of the "Fun Factor." This is what made MySpace so exciting and grow fast was that High Schoolers and College Kids could connect with friends, meet new friends, and share their lives. Unfortunately, after Fox bought them, they slowed innovation, and users outgrew the site and it was slow to load. The slow to load also killed Friendster. But FB focused on easy communication between college kids and college grads, and it has innovated to keep pace with growing communication pattern, and maintaining an easy to use "Fun" communication tool.

Google and Yahoo was never able to brand or capture a Fun, Exciting, Viral experience from its users. Most of their E-mail customer base is older adults or people focused just on e-mail and uninterested in sharing everything via that site to all their e-mail contacts. Fun is about connecting to real families, friends, and students.

Google does it right and if Google me is not a rumor then count me on Google Me :)

There is only one thing Google must do in order to compete with the most popular Social networking site” facebook” . Google must cure those multi-million adults who are addicted with farmville, farmtown and other Amazing Games that you can only play on facebook..

amaizing I was looking for some inspiring articles.
This is a great resource. Thanks for the post!
My latest articles @ http://www.greenilo.com/blog

Google Me, Google Me, Hurry Hurry, Go Goal Gold…….Don’t wait for the perfect day, Rome is built by day by day — Lord’s Baby!!!

If Google go for the engineers from Facebook,
will Google Me run more faster & better — Lord’s Baby

Don’t whether its a rumor or a real thing.. But one thing’s for sure it can’t beat Facebook anyhow..

Google is the No. 1 Search Engine no doubt but in the social community Facebook is the No.1 and will remain so..

No one is really that loyal to fb anymore though. I think people would love to jump to a better one.

I don’t see Google going casual enough to attract the Facebook market. Facebook works for people who are not professionals but just connect socially, play addicting and useless games and collect things. It is out of Google’s usual market and not their style.

Also, I noticed there is a business already using GoogleMe as their name. As an interesting sidenote. http://www.aboutmeonline.com/

really very much exited to see the new google me. Hoping 4 better result.

Here’s the big difference!!

google is a TOOL. You search, it’s just you and google. Then you get what you need and you leave. That tool makes a lot of $$$.

facebook is a DESTINATION. You and all your “friends” are there, wasting time talking and sending updates to each other. It is addictive. It consumes a lot of people’s time, attention and gets in the news everywhere.

google has ONE property that’s sort of like this, and that’s YOUTUBE.

In the end, the social thing is gonna win. That’s because when a competing tool comes out (e.g. bing) you can switch over, since you have no friends you are leaving behind.

But social is — once you get sucked in, it’s hard to leave. Because it’s just too much effort to drag everyone out along with you.