Musings on GoogleBook: What if Google were a social network?

This post has been sitting in my Drafts folder for the last six weeks. Given Arrington's scoop today, I thought I'd throw it out there to see if it sparked any conversation.

What they have:

• A personal front page (iGoogle)
• A web application framework (Gadgets)
• A lot of knowledge about my "networks" (relationships), namely
  1. my domain (via GAFYD)
  2. my groups (via Google Groups)
  3. my address book(s) (Gmail/Apps contacts)
  4. my "buddies" (via Gtalk)
  5. the events/meetings I'm attending (Calendar)
  6. subscribed calendars (Calendar)
  7. my stocks (Finance)
• Communications conduits (Gmail, Groups, Gtalk)
• Photos (Picasa)
• Videos (YouTube, Google Video)
• Blogs (Blogger)
• Classifieds (Base)
• A payment system (Checkout)
• An ad system (AdSense)

What they don't have:

• a Twitter/status app Google just bought Jaiku (9-Oct-07)
• a "Wall" app
• and most importantly: a way for apps to spread virally ("BJ just added the 'FOO' app", "Invite your friends to add the BAR app", etc.)

Discuss.

Comments

[Susan Scrupski]

Google still doesn't have a "sticky" user interface. Most things Google are kinda plain, no? I suppose they leave it to the individual to dress it up, but as you've seen even in our EI group, that doesn't happen much. I know Facebook sometimes is taken to task on the same criticism, but FB even with its current look and feel provides a nice user experience.

And, come on, even you don't believe Blogger counts, do you? ;-)

That being said. Definitely. This is a piece of cake for Google for the reasons you've outlined, if they can make the customer experience attractive. Worth the jump... for those of us who are Google loyalists anyway.

[Charlie Wood]

Susan,

Facebook certainly has a more cohesive UI, while some Google properties obviously get more attention than others. But I tend to think Google does UI very well when it cares enough to focus on it.

As for Blogger, it's recently gotten a lot of attention and upgrades after languishing for several years. And maybe most importantly from a Googebook perspective, it's already integrated with Google accounts and sports a full GData API.

Now if Google would just get around to opening an API into Gmail contacts...

-c