The one thing I've found about social networking sites is that it really is a chicken and the egg sort of situation in the sense that people tend to use the service most of their contacts use, and use actively. I first started on Bebo in 2003 to keep in touch with my mates back in London. Until I started getting sent invites to Facebook, which I probably didn't bother with for several months. I ended up signing up, and after realizing I had more contacts on Facebook, and the system actually offered something more refined than Bebo, I deleted my Bebo Account and pulled a few people with me.
My point is, people are usually either stuck in their ways, or simply can't be bothered shopping for social networks. I, and most people I know (I bet most adults with better things to worry about), are in the latter category. So Google would need something very attractive to pull people away from Facebook IMO. Facebook does everything I need (so far) from these social network things. Namely, keeping up with close friends and family who don't live nearby without the need to worry about numbers and emails that frequently change. Perfect. The privacy card may be a big part of that for Google. Even the less tech and legal savvy are aware and a little concerned about FB's privacy changes in the past. And we all know that Google garners a little more trust from the unwashed masses than most tech companies. Beyond that, I really see this move akin to Ebay trying to compete with Trademe in terms of how well entrenched the little guy is. Time will tell. Google do have a good track record of impressing. ----- Original Message ----- From: christopher tombleson To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, March 14, 2011 10:52 AM Subject: Re: [phpug] Almost time to ditch Facebook? I wouldnt be ditching facebook anytime soon myself. After all facebook is one of the biggest and probably the biggest innovator of social networking. As Harvey said if google is going to do this project hopefully google puts 200% percent into it. and if anyone could take on facebook, google would be the only company who could do so. On Mar 14, 2011 10:32 AM, "Harvey Kane" <[email protected]> wrote: It would be nice if Google bothered to finish and/or support some of their existing projects (eg Android) rather than rushing off to try and take someone else on at their own game. So much of what they do is nearly there, and has the potential to be awesome, but it's as if all the resources constantly get funnelled off onto the next greatest thing. Don't get me wrong, I think Google are great and have some really innovative things going on. But they are beyond terrible at listening to and responding to their users, and as a result a number of products seem to come out "good" rather than "killer". Harvey. On 14/03/2011 10:08 a.m., Kent Parker wrote: > > Google is launching a new killer app: http://www.... -- Harvey Kane Phone: - Auckland: +64 9 950 4133 - Wanaka: +64 3 746 8133 - Mobile: +64 21 811 951 Email: [email protected] If you need to contact me urgently, please read my email policy www.ragepank.com/email/-- NZ PHP Users Group: http://groups.google.com/group/nzphpug To post, send email to nzphpug@goog... -- NZ PHP Users Group: http://groups.google.com/group/nzphpug To post, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected] -- NZ PHP Users Group: http://groups.google.com/group/nzphpug To post, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected]
