Gbook? Google set to take on Facebook

09/02/10 posted by Liz Niland

On the back of yesterday’s reports that Facebook may be creating a webmail future for itself, it has now been revealed that Google, specifically its popular mail client Gmail, may be attempting to delve further into social media. We’ve all been worried about the divides between Google and the other giants - Apple and Microsoft - but it’s looking as though concern for Facebook’s continued mushroom-like growth is spurring Google on to compete in a slightly different field.

While Google has attempted a foray into social media previously with Google Friend Connect and Google Profiles, it has been said that this development will be centred on Gmail. As reported in the New York Times, these new features are set to include add-ons “that let people post and view messages about their day-to-day activities”. It has not yet been confirmed whether these features will be linked to or integrated with updates from rival sites such as Facebook and Twitter, but it’s pretty well a given the Google-owned Picasa and Youtube will earn a guernsey.

Although no one doubts the fun existing and prospective Gmail users will have with a fresh-faced webmail experience, is it too much of a big leap to take on Facebook? Can Google expect to come out on top? Surely Mr Schmidt (Google CEO) and his colleagues are not naive enough to think they can take down Facebook with one fell swoop. And hopefully consideration has been allowed for selecting how and with whom your information is shared. Are your Gmail contacts the people you want to share your private life with? Like many people, I would prefer not to show my party photos to some of the professional acquaintances I have floating in my Gmail contacts. 


If the new features will work in conjunction with rival sites, acting as a sort of funnel for other notifications, as well as allowing for new Gmail-based communication, it would work towards solving the issues identified by Michael Arrington at TechCrunch. Likening social media circa 2010 to search as it was in the pre-Google dark ages, Arrington writes about the effort it takes to weed through all the spam and nonsense “to find the few gems of real content from people I care about”. If, however, Google have created yet another social networking site, it will have to be something incredibly special to succeed. 

Google revolutionised search; but, can it do the same for social media? Google is set to announce further details at an event on Tuesday morning US time.